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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27546712">Spidey's Blizzard</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/capmerica93/pseuds/capmerica93'>capmerica93</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Chronicles of a Mutant and a Spider [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Best Friends, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, High School, Mild Language, Mutants, Secrets, Spider-Man: Homecoming Spoilers, Teenagers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:35:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>56,803</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27546712</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/capmerica93/pseuds/capmerica93</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Willa Miller-Stryker has had a tough life. She won't deny it to anyone who asks. Her only saving grace? Peter Benjamin Parker who lives across the hall. Since she moved to Queens, the two have been inseparable. That is, until Willa's past comes back to bite her. Steve Rogers needs her help, and she knows that if she says yes, her friendship with Peter, her life even, is on the line. Throw all of that in with the normal high school drama, and it's bound to be a wild ride.</p><p>I do not own any Marvel Characters. I only own my OCs and their storylines.<br/>(I'm crap at summaries so just give it a try.)</p><p>Note: I've edited and updated the whole story on 4/9/2021. Only a few story tweaking things.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes &amp; Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s), May Parker (Spider-Man) &amp; Original Female Character(s), May Parker (Spider-Man) &amp; Peter Parker &amp; Original Female Character(s), Michelle Jones &amp; Ned Leeds &amp; Peter Parker, Michelle Jones &amp; Original Female Character(s), Michelle Jones &amp; Peter Parker, Ned Leeds &amp; Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Original Female Character(s), Steve Rogers &amp; Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers &amp; Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Chronicles of a Mutant and a Spider [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2013541</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello! If you're reading this, thanks for checking out my story! It is my first ever fic, so it means a lot.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>On August 8<sup>th</sup>, 2001, a beautiful baby girl was born to Ella and Bennett Stryker. They named her Willa Mae. <em>Resolute Protection.</em> Both Ella and Bennett knew very early on that Willa was different, and when people are different, they are often ridiculed for it. They wanted Willa to know that no matter what, she was her own protection. She had her mother’s blue eyes and her father’s face, with her complexion being the in between of her father’s light and her mother’s dark. When Willa was born, the doctor noticed an anomaly within her DNA, the X Gene. This means that she is a mutant. When her parents found out, Ella and Bennett loved her even more because of it. They went out of their way to make sure that Willa was given the medical care and skills she needed to be proud of herself.</p><p>Many hospitals wouldn’t treat mutants as they thought that having and treating mutants was a liability to everyone else in the building incase their powers went berserk. The Strykers found a hospital close to Manhattan called Mutant Memorial which specialized in Mutant Care and Medicine. Because of this hospital and the doctors there, Willa was able to exceed in learning how to control her powers, as well as just absorb information around her. By the age of three, she was already helping her parents build their projects. After a few years, the Strykers decided to buy a house close to the hospital so that they had somewhere to stay while the developed new technology for the hospital.</p><p>Unfortunately, the happiness shared by the Strykers and all the patients, doctors, and nurses were cut short. On Willa’s 4<sup>th</sup> birthday, her parents were called away to an emergency meeting at the headquarters of Miller-Stryker Enterprises, or MSE for short, a technology firm rivaling that of Stark Industries.</p><p>When Willa’s parents got the call, they were disheartened. They had never missed a birthday. However, this meeting needed to happen. The Strykers had developed new technology that brought a lot of attention their way. They decided that though the technology they created was far beyond its time, no one needed to have it, now or in the future. This technology would allow for someone to have complete control over another person’s mind. It was fun to think about all the pieces that should work theoretically, and they thought it would be a fun project, but didn't think that it would work. When it did, they decided that now one would ever get the plans to it. In order to do that, they dismantled the prototype and packed it up, leaving the key component needed for it to work with Willa, knowing no one would ever check if their 4-year-old daughter would have it.</p><p>They decided to leave Willa with Ella’s parents because her parents were the closest and Ella and Bennett knew they couldn’t take Willa with on this trip. Of course, Willa was upset, because she could tell that her grandparents didn’t like her. She knew her parents had to go. She knew that her parents always came back. She didn't want to stay with her grandparents.</p><p>Willa was in the kitchen at the table working on her machine when she heard her parents talking with her grandparents.</p><p>“It will only be for a couple of days, Sarah. It won’t kill you. Willa thinks that you don’t like her, and this will be good for you to bond with her.” Bennett said.</p><p>“She isn’t normal, Ben,” Ella’s mother all but screeched, “She could just go off at any time. She is a freak and should be locked up somewhere!”</p><p>“She isn’t a freak, Mother,” Ella fired back, “She’s just a little girl –”</p><p>“Mommy! Daddy!” Willa cried, running into the living room, not being able to take any more fighting. “My part broke. Do you have another one?” Her parents looked down to see the broken gear she was holding.</p><p>“No Snowflake,” her father began, “there isn’t one here. Your mom and I will be back tomorrow to pick you up and we can get you a new one when we get home, alright?” Willa smiled again and just nodded and gave both of her parents the biggest hug.</p><p>“Remember Snowflake,” Ella said with tears glistening in her eyes, “even if we’re not here, all you have to do is think of us and we’ll be here,” pointing to her head, “and here,” pointing to her heart. “Why don’t you go and finish the blueprints you started drawing for the machine you’re working on and you can show them to us tomorrow when we get back.”</p><p>Willa nodded, gave one more giant hug, as big of one as she could muster, and ran back to the other room to work on her drawings. Ella and Ben looked back to her parents, seeing their hesitant looks.</p><p>“It really is just one night. You’ll see she isn’t any different than any other kid, you guys. She won’t hurt you. We’ll be back tomorrow by 4, I swear. This thing will be open and shut.” Ella said as her and Ben walked to the door.</p><p>Ella’s mother still looked hesitant and responded, “By 4 then, dear. We will make it work. Contrary to what you may believe, we do want grandchildren in our lives, though normal ones would be preferred.”</p><p>Ella and Bennett, shaking their heads, opened the door and walked to their car to leave for the airport. What none of them knew was that would be the last time they would see Ella and Bennett Stryker alive.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Willa’s parents died on the way to the airport after her dad lost control of the car and crashed. Her parents’ will stated that should anything ever happen to them, Willa should be left in the care of her grandparents, so that was where she stayed, no matter how much she didn’t like it.</p><p>As the time past, Willa’s eyes lost their shine and she seemed to grow quieter and even more observant. This was because, in some twisted way, Willa’s grandparents blamed her for the death of her parents. They would never use her name, they would always just call her ‘freak’, which Willa didn’t care for very much. She wasn’t allowed to speak unless she was spoken to and was left home alone a lot while her grandparents went out to parties and events for MSE. Willa was completely cut off from what she knew, and she had to adjust in order to survive. She learned very quickly how to take care of herself, which meant learning how to get herself meals, cleaning her clothes, and finding somewhere to practice her powers without her grandparents knowing.</p><p>By the time six months had passed, Willa was self-sufficient in pretty much all aspects of her life because her grandparents never acknowledged her. They would lock her in her room and leave her there without reason, though Willa quickly learned how to pick the lock to get the door open so she could get food.</p><p>One day, Willa’s grandparents caught Willa out of her room trying to get herself something to eat, and it did not go well for Willa. For the first time in months, her grandparents acknowledged her, but not in the way that Willa craved for them to. They both began screaming at her, saying she should have been the one who died because she is a freak and that she doesn’t deserve to eat because that is her punishment for killing her parents.</p><p>“You! Stupid freak! Why couldn’t you have been normal?”</p><p>“Your parents are lucky they’re dead! Now they don’t have to deal with you!”</p><p>Willa’s grandmother went to shove her at the wall and Willa’s back collided with the wall, her instincts kicked in. Willa felt her eyes involuntarily switch color to their bright blue and her hair changed color, as white as snow.</p><p>Her Grandmother stared in astonishment. “You insolent brat. What did you do to your hair?” She charged Willa, ready to push her into a closet when an icy storm picked up, surrounding Willa, protecting her as she cried, wondering what she did to deserve what has happened to her.</p><p>As the storm spun, an icicle cut her grandmother’s wrist, causing both the grandparents to run downstairs to let Willa be. After a few hours of holding up that storm, the 4 ½ year old was worn out and just fell asleep against the wall, the storm disappearing with her consciousness.</p><p>From downstairs, Willa’s grandparents noticed it was eerily quiet in the house. They slowly made their way to where they had left Willa and noticed that she was asleep, leaning against the wall, her appearance turned to normal.</p><p>“Don’t worry, dear. I’ll get rid of the freak. We’ll be free of her by the end of the night.” The grandfather said, walking cautiously towards Willa as to not wake her up. He took her to the car and put her in the back seat and began to drive. And drive. And drive some more. Now, Willa’s grandparents did not live in the city, they preferred to live in the country, so here it wasn’t hard for her grandfather to find an isolated street. He grabbed the sleeping girl and left her in the ditch, leaving her there to fend for herself and just drove off.</p><p>Willa woke up when the sun began to rise and realized that she was not where she last remembered. She started to panic, sitting on the side of the road, when she remembered what her mother told her the day that they left.</p><p><em>"Remember Snowflake,” </em>she said<em>, “even if we’re not here, all you have to do is think of us and we’ll be here,” </em>pointing to her head<em>, “and here,” </em>pointing to her heart<em>.</em></p><p>Even though Willa was young, her parents had taught her that there is always a way to solve a problem, though it may take a while. You just have to keep going and sometimes you had to think your way around the problem. Willa stood up, brushed off her dress she had on from the day before, and looked around at all the trees.</p><p>Before she could pick a direction to go, a car rolled to a stop right next to her. Willa was, of course, quite cautious as she had never seen the woman who had stepped out of the car before. Her chestnut hair reached her shoulders in beachy waves, and she was tall, taller than her parents, anyways. As she approached, Willa took a step back and felt her eyes flash bright blue, and the woman must have noticed.</p><p>She knelt down with a small smile on her face, “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Anna. What is your name?”</p><p>Willa still just looked at her, still not convinced she should trust this woman.</p><p>“It really is okay. I promise I won’t hurt you.”</p><p>Anna went to take reach forward to help this little girl out of the ditch when she noticed she backed up to keep her distance from the stranger. Anna stood up to get closer and smiled.</p><p>“You know, I know of a place where there are lots of people who have powers, just like you do. Would you like to come with me and meet some of them?”</p><p>Now, Willa knew that she had never met this woman in her life, but the promise of people who know what it is like to be different, and who accept being different was what made Willa think to give some trust to Anna, especially after how her grandparents had treated her. Anna helped Willa into her car, and this is where Willa’s story truly begins.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Secrets and Story Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>March 2016</em>
</p><p>“Look Peter, I get where you’re coming from, but I really don’t think the Blackbird is dead. It’s highly improbable. She would’ve gone out fighting and said fight would’ve been broadcasted by every major media news outlet because they don’t know what the word ‘privacy’ means. We’d have heard about it by now if it happened.”</p><p>Willa Miller-Stryker has survived many ups and downs throughout her life, and though many people, Willa included, would classify it as mostly downs, she is still thankful for all of it. Particularly for it landing her in Queens, New York City, New York. Even more specifically, for it landing her across the hall from a boy and his aunt. She bumped into Peter Parker and his Aunt May the next day when she was on her way out the door for school. As soon as they figured out that they were both major <em>Star Wars </em>fans, the most beautiful friendship blossomed.</p><p>“But Willa,” Peter started, “why wasn’t she in Sokovia then? Maybe she died in that fight and they just decided to not share it with the press.”</p><p>“Peter, all I’m saying is that it’s highly improbable, not impossible. Maybe her and Cap got in a fight and she’d had enough, deciding to retire. They are, like, 100 years old.” Willa finished as he put his key into his apartment door’s lock.</p><p>“I guess. Ugh, I hate trying to debate with you. It is like trying to break a brick wall.” Peter chuckled, walking inside. “May, me and Willa are home!”</p><p>Out of the kitchen walks Peter’s aunt, May Parker. “Hey kids. How was school?”</p><p>“Oh, we got a new chemistry project today,” Willa started, “we get to make crystals by coming up with our own solution. It’s gonna be so fun, and Mr. K let us pick our partners so, naturally, Peter and I are going to ace this project.”</p><p>May just chuckled as the two teenagers continued to Peter’s room discussing their project while May worked on dinner.</p><p>When Willa moved in across the hall, she found an immediate friend in Peter Parker. However, Peter and May don’t know the whole truth about Willa. Most notably the fact that she is a mutant. As the years passed, the legislation regarding Mutants and their care became very strict. The legislation signed into law states that a Mutant can’t foster a Mutant unless there is written permission from the legal guardian of the mutant child. Since Willa’s grandparents gave her up and left her for dead, Willa is supposed to be a ward of the state of New York. However, because of what her grandparents did, everyone, including them, thinks that Willa Miller wandered off and died somewhere, so people stopped looking. Luckily for Willa, the people at Mutant Memorial and The School for the Gifted know what they’re doing when it comes to hiding children from the Federal Government.</p><p>Willa hasn’t ever liked secrets, but she understands the importance of them. She didn’t like that she couldn’t tell anyone in depth about her life, but she knew that it was to keep herself and others safe. She knew that Peter and May wouldn’t care if they knew, and Willa would love for them to know, but she didn’t want to tell them and give them the burden of keeping the secret as well. She knew that the less people who knew the secret, the better, which is why only Willa and her doctor from Mutant Memorial, Chelsea, knew that there was someone living with Willa across the hall. The Missing Avenger.</p><p>Amelia Rogers, the Super Soldier Sister to Captain Steve Rogers, has not been seen by the Avengers since the end of 2014, a few months after the Triskelion fell. She had her own assignment that she needed to complete; Finding the love of her life, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes and restoring his memory. She didn’t tell Steve where she was going, and Steve never asked, but they did communicate with each other to make sure that each of them were okay. That is, until suddenly she stopped answering his calls. At first Steve thought that something came up, and she just couldn’t make the call. Eventually Steve broke, telling the rest of the team that she had went off to do something and had stopped answering his calls. This made all of them wonder what she needed to work on so badly, and why she hasn’t come back.</p><p>What they didn’t know was that Mia had made the decision on her own to disappear. After only a few months of searching, Mia had found Bucky. It took her awhile to break through to him, but eventually he accepted her help. She was able to help piece together the memories from the times that they were together. Everything that happened before he fell off the train. He remembered her, and they were able to pick up right where they left off. One thing led to another, and Mia got pregnant, though, neither of them knew. At least, not for a time.</p><p>Mia was attached to Bucky’s unit, the 107<sup>th</sup>, during World War II, and was with them when they were captured. She endured the torture and experimentation until Steve found them and brought them back to camp. When the Allied doctors, along with Howard Stark, examined her during her checkup when the 107<sup>th</sup> returned, the doctors told her that she couldn’t have children due to the experimentation. So, when she woke up every morning throwing up, neither of them knew what to do. The thought of pregnancy had never come to mind because they had both made their piece with Mia never being able to have children. After discussing it, they both decided it was best for them to split up. That way, Bucky wouldn’t get caught trying to care for a sick person and Mia could go home and go to a doctor to see what was wrong with her without giving any law enforcement agency an idea of where the Winter Soldier was.</p><p>Before Mia got back to the States, the thought of pregnancy had finally crossed her mind. She had always wanted to have children. She decided that taking one test couldn’t hurt, so she went to get one. It came back positive. She didn’t believe it, so she bought another, and the result was the same. After taking five tests, she realized that she was something that she never thought that she could be.</p><p>Amelia Rogers was pregnant. She knew, in that moment, that she couldn't call Steve or Tony. She couldn’t go back to the Avengers Facility. There would be no way she could hide the pregnancy from them. They’d ask questions, and she wouldn’t be able to answer them. She was sure that eventually they would figure it out, or she’d slip up. She knew her friends wouldn’t give her up, but if any law enforcement agency found out, she would be arrested and used as a pawn in a game she did not want to play. Then came the next problem. She didn't have anywhere to go, or a job to get money, and the Blackbird is a famous Avenger.</p><p>Eventually, she came up with the idea to find Willa, the little girl she met in Washington D.C. 4 years ago. Mia knew about Willa’s situation and knew that though she was only 14, she wouldn’t give Mia up. She knew that Willa had been moved up to New York City after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, so that Steve could keep an eye on her while the Government watched Anna. So, Mia started searching for where Willa could’ve been. A few months later, Mia had finally found the place and decided that that was her only option.</p><p>Willa had been at school when Mia arrived, and decided to get some much-needed rest. Willa had spent most of the day staying at Peter’s, and finally crossed the hall around 6:30, and found Mia, four months pregnant, helping herself to the ice cream from the freezer. A conversation ensued, and Willa made sure that Mia was comfortable for as long as she needed to stay. It also meant that Willa began spending a lot more time over in Peter’s apartment instead of across the hall. She couldn’t exactly explain why Mia was in her apartment. Willa thought she was being discreet about it, both Peter and May had noticed. In fact, they were just about to question it when Willa piped up.</p><p>“I think I’m going to head back across the hall. Thanks for supper, May,” mumbled Willa, getting up from the table.</p><p>“Actually dear,” May spoke, “I was wondering if you’re doing alright. You’ve been coming over a lot more in the last few months, and I’m worried.”</p><p>Both Peter and May watched her quite closely, because they knew that there was more going on than Willa let on, but they just couldn’t figure out what it was.</p><p>“Really, you guys,” Willa started, “I am alright, I promise. It just sucks how lonely it gets in there with my parents gone all the time. I do promise I’m alright though. I don’t have to come over all the time if you don’t want—”</p><p>“Wil,” Peter interrupted, “You know that’s not it. We’re just worried because it is like you don’t want to be there at all if you can help it.”</p><p>Willa considered that for a moment. She had thought she’d been subtle about it, but Peter and May paid more attention to her than she thought, which made her realize how those two people really were the family she had, through and through.</p><p>“You guys,” she started, “I really am alright. I appreciate how much you care, more than you know. You know how I am when it gets to be too quiet all the time. I can only listen to my playlist so many times before I get tired of hearing it.”</p><p>“If you’re sure, Wil.”</p><p>Willa smiled and continued to the couch to grab her backpack and headed to the door to cross the hall before May stopped her and gave her a big hug and handed her a container.</p><p>“I know how you get when you’re in one of your moods,” she whispered, “here’s the midnight snack I know you’ll want later.”</p><p>May knew that there was something that Willa wasn’t sharing, and she knew that it was hard for her not ever having anyone home there. May shared a look with Peter as Willa closed the door on her way out.</p><p>“You know she’s not saying something, right sweetie?”</p><p>“Yeah. I just have no idea what it is.”</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Pulling the ice cream out of the freezer, Willa went to sit on the couch with her hidden treasure, Amelia Rogers, who looked like she was ready to pop.</p><p>“You know Willa,” Mia started, “This is really good meatloaf. I thought you said May couldn’t cook?” Willa just smiled at her and continued eating her pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream.</p><p>“I didn’t say she couldn’t cook. There are just certain foods that we decide it is just better to order takeout.” Mia just giggled and continued eating her meatloaf.</p><p>Mia couldn’t be more thankful for Willa Miller. Willa goes out late to get her cravings, pickles and wasabi, of all things. She makes sure she’s got things to wear, makes sure she always knows what is going on, and best of all, doesn’t mind that she’s been in Queens, in Willa’s apartment, for five months.</p><p>“Willa,” Mia says, breaking the silence, “I envy you.”</p><p>“Why on Earth would you do that?”</p><p>“I envy the fact that you can eat your ice cream and it will never melt, ever. I wish I could do that. I remember the days when we had to eat most everything we had right away because we didn’t have a refrigerator to keep it good.”</p><p>“Yes, well, now it is 2016, where we have things like that, and lots of other amazing things that almost everyone takes for granted.” Willa said smartly, still chewing on a chuck of brownie from her ice cream. “Do you have everything packed for tomorrow?”</p><p>Tomorrow was the day that Mia and Willa were headed up to Salem Center so that Mia was there when her baby decided to come. Not that there is anything wrong with having a child at a New York City hospital, but Willa knew that no one at Mutant Memorial would question it and turn Mia in, and if Mia’s powers flared while she was giving birth, the doctors and nurses, and the building, would be able to handle it.</p><p>“I’ve packed everything that I thought I would need. Have you talked to the school about being gone?”</p><p>“Of course. I let Ms. B know at the office and she said she would take care of it.” Willa said as she got up to take her ice cream and Mia’s plate back to the kitchen.</p><p>“Good. Have you told Peter and May yet?”</p><p>There was a grand pause, which Mia took as a big fat no.</p><p>“That’s a very good question, Mia. I thought it would be better if I just waited until tomorrow because---”</p><p>“Willa,” Mia waddled to the kitchen to look Willa in the eye, “They are the most important thing in your life. I don’t want you to ruin your relationship with them so that you can keep me hidden. They are your family.”</p><p>Willa thought about that for a moment. She had been trying so hard to keep both sides of her life separate that she didn’t think about how that affected them. She now understood why May and Peter had questioned her at dinner.</p><p>Willa looked at Mia, and Mia knew she hit it home. Mia gave her a hug, and it felt like one Willa hadn’t had for a long time. A hug like her mother used to give.</p><p>“I promise I have it under control. I’ll text Peter in the morning and tell him that I’m not feeling well and ask if he can take notes from me. It’ll work out. I promised when you came, I would keep you hidden, and I don’t break my promises.”</p><p>Willa had made up her mind a long time ago. She’d moved around so much, saw so many people going through horrible things, Willa would always do what she could to help and protect the people who need it.</p><p>“I have a feeling that train ride tomorrow is going to be long, so I am going to head to bed, Wil. Good night sweetheart.” Giving Willa a kiss on the head, Mia waddled back to her room and shut the door.</p><p>Willa stayed up for a while longer, working on her homework, checking the programs running on her computer, packing her bag for the trip the next morning, all while dreading sending that text to Peter the next morning. Right before she crawled into bed, her computer dinged, so she walked back over to check what it was. Her program had signaled because it had finally gained access to F.R.I.D.AY.’s search for the missing Avenger. <em>Just in time, </em>Willa thought. Without alerting F.R.I.D.A.Y., Willa changed the facial points in the search so that even if Mia walked outside and looked directly at a camera, it wouldn’t alert the Avengers because the points wouldn’t match.</p><p>After successfully changing everything, Willa crawled into bed, dreading the day to come.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>When Peter woke up, he’d hoped that he could talk with Willa on their walk to school because he thought maybe she would tell him what was wrong because she didn’t want to tell May about it. He got ready a little faster that morning, eating breakfast with May when he got a message from Willa.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>New Message</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>From: Wilster</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>To: Petey</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Hey Pete. I know it’s last minute, but could you take notes for me at school today? I’m not feeling well, so I’m gonna stay home.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Peter read that a few times, surprised at what appeared on his screen. Willa is never sick. Ever. In the years that he and May have known her, she has not once ever been sick. That right there, was the last straw for Peter.</p><p>“Aunt May,” Peter started, “Can I stay home from school today?”</p><p>“Peter,” May said, stirring her oatmeal, “There is nothing wrong with you. You have to go to school, no if’s, and’s, or but’s about---”</p><p>Peter shoved the message in her face, and he watched her face morph from a little upset that he asked to stay home to confusion to suspicion of why Willa would pretend to be sick.</p><p>“Actually Pete, how about we both take the day off?”</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Across the hall, Mia and Willa were all packed and ready for a day on the train. Mia’s due date worked out beautifully because the next week of school was spring break, so Willa wouldn’t miss anymore school than this one Friday. Willa checked her phone again for the time, noting that Peter should be gone, walking to school, and May should’ve already left for work, so they were in the clear to head out. As Willa opened the door, there Peter and May stood, looking as though they were about to knock on the door.</p><p>Then came Mia with her bag behind Willa, not noticing that May and Peter were right outside the door.</p><p>“Willa, why are you just standing there? Grab your bag or we’ll miss the…” Mia stopped when she saw the two Parkers standing there. Mia wasn’t sure what to say because she knew that she couldn’t talk her way out of this one.</p><p>“Willa,” Peter started, “Why is the Blackbird standing in your apartment?”</p><p>Willa could feel them staring at her as she looked at the floor, thinking of how to explain what was going on. When she looked up at them both, her words came out in a whisper.</p><p>“Please don’t tell.”</p><p>When Peter and May heard those words come out of her mouth, they knew that Willa was desperate to keep this, keep Mia, a secret. Without a word from Willa, Mia invited the Parkers inside, to what would be a very confusing conversation.</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Wait, Are You?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After Mia finished telling her story, Peter noticed that Willa had been very quiet, lost in her head.</p><p>“Wil, why didn’t you tell us? We could’ve helped.”</p><p>“The less people who know means there is a lesser chance that you get hurt because of someone coming to find her.” Willa responded, almost robotically. The three of them silently decided to not comment on how fast Willa answered that question, though Mia knew why she had answered the way that she did.</p><p>May just shook her head, and noticed that there were packed bags sitting next to the door.</p><p>“Where were you two headed when we stopped you?” May asked.</p><p>“We were headed to Salem Center, actually. Um,” Willa stated, then decided to further explain when she received confused looks from both Peter and May, “There is a hospital there that specializes in treating powered people, and it would be safer if Mia went there in case her powers flare while she is giving birth.”</p><p>Mia just rolled her eyes at Willa, realizing that she had yet to share that part of her life with the Parkers.</p><p>“I forgot something in my room, Mia. I’ll be right back.” Willa got up, rather abruptly, and made her way down the hall to her room. Mia was starting to get worried about her. Willa was already starting to shut down. Mia turned back to look at the Parkers.</p><p>“It was lovely to meet the both of you, Mrs. Parker and Peter—”</p><p>“May is just fine. Don’t go on with that ‘Mrs.’ stuff.”</p><p>“Alright,” Mia grinned, still hesitant because she hasn’t had a normal friend in a very long time, “but Willa and I do have a train to catch, unless the two of you would like to come along? I know it is quite short notice, but I do think that Wil would enjoy the company.”</p><p>May thought about it, working out all the information she just learned as she pondered the invitation. May knew Peter wouldn’t say anything, but he really did want to go, and he was practically on Spring Break already, and he really wanted to have a conversation about what was going on, and she did have the weekend off…</p><p>“If you’re sure we won’t be a problem Ms. Rogers, I think that the both of us should go pack a bag.”</p><p>Mia grinned. She didn’t want Willa to lose the family that she had built all on her own, and getting the two of them to come with on this trip was the first step to get Willa to realize that Mia meant what she said the night before.</p><p>“Trust me, the both of you will not be a problem, May. I’ve had to deal with bigger issues than a train ride, but please don’t call me Ms. Rogers. Amelia or Mia is just fine.”</p><p>May and Peter quickly went back to their apartment to throw their bags together before Willa tried to leave without them, because they knew that she hated conflict and totally would. Willa was locking the door to their apartment when May and Peter walked out with their bags.</p><p>“Um, where are you going?” She questioned, as she noticed their bags in their hands.</p><p>“Mia invited us along,” Peter explained, “and we can work on our chemistry project now since you’re stuck with us.”</p><p>Willa gave a weak smile and said, “Pete, it is spring break. I thought that ‘it’s forbidden to think about homework on Spring Break’?”</p><p>The two adults of the group just smiled at the interaction. Peter wasn’t mad, and Willa was starting to see that. Willa took Mia’s bag and they all followed her to the elevator, only for the two teens to enter a lengthy conversation about a Star Wars theory that Peter had read online.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>From the train station, it was a 10 minute car ride to Willa’s favorite place on Earth, Mutant Memorial. Willa loved to help as much as she could at the hospital because without that place, she wouldn’t be anywhere. Specifically, she wouldn’t be anywhere without the help of one person, Dr. Chelsea Grant.</p><p>Chelsea, because no one actually calls her “Dr. Grant”, has been Willa’s doctor since her parents first brought her to Mutant Memorial a few months after she was born. When the Strykers died, Chelsea tried her best to figure out what happened to Willa, but she couldn’t find her. It was as though she just dropped off the face of the earth. 6 months later, Anna showed up with this little girl she found on the side of the road and Chelsea knew exactly who it was. Anna explained to her that the little girl wouldn’t talk to anyone, and Chelsea knew that if one of the most talkative little girls she had ever met wasn’t talking, something had happened to make her that way, and it wasn’t Chelsea’s place to explain who this little girl was.</p><p>After Chelsea finished her examination, Willa finally told her what had happened and told her she didn’t ever want to go back to her grandparents' house, ever again, and Chelsea made sure that that never happened. Chelsea modified all of Willa’s records to match the name that would keep her hidden.</p><p>In respect of Willa’s parents, Chelsea had lied to everyone and said that Willa had told her only the basics. Her first name and her birthday. Even though the Strykers had been royalty at the hospital, no one really knew that much about their child, and Chelsea was thanking every god out there for it.</p><p>Because of Chelsea’s lie, they all had sat and thought about what the last name of the little girl in the other room should be. They had come up with many, but none seemed to be the right fit, until Chelsea suggested ‘Miller.’ It was Ella Stryker’s maiden name, and it was so common that no one would think twice about it, especially if someone came looking for the little girl. This ensured that no one would be able to connect Willa to her parents, at least until she decided that she wanted to be known as a Styrker.</p><p>Everyone at the hospital enjoyed when Willa came to visit because they knew it would be a good time. Willa loved being a part of something that her parents built, even if no one knew that they were her parents.</p><p>“Welcome to the best place on Earth.” Willa hurried inside, not waiting for the rest of them to follow. She was almost shaking with excitement as she hadn’t been able to make a trip longer than a few hours since Mia had moved into her apartment.</p><p>The three following her noticed her excitement, and were thrilled that she seemed to have dropped her ‘doom and gloom’ attitude, taking in everything around them. Normal hospitals will have the white tiled floors and the lightly colored walls, but this one was different. Besides the fact that there were workers levitating things that they needed or a nurse trying to help calm down a patient that kept shooting flames around in one of the hospital rooms, the floor was white, but the walls were filled with different colors, swooping and arching to create a beautiful mural that was the length of the hall depicting people of all ages and sizes and colors with their powers.</p><p>Once they had all caught up to Willa, who was already at the desk, filling out some paperwork, May asked, “Why is it the best place on Earth?”</p><p>Willa turned to face them, almost forgetting that they had come with, and gave her best answer, “Quite a good question, Aunt May. This place is the absolute best place on Earth because no one---”</p><p>“’---gets judged here.’ Yes Willa, you say that to every new person who walks through that door. Are there any other reasons that someone should think Mutant Memorial is the best place on Earth?” Chelsea grinned, as she had just teleported back from the exam room and startled Willa. Willa let out some choice words under her breath, and Chelsea laughed even harder.</p><p>“There are plenty of reasons Chels,” Willa rolled her eyes at Chelsea, before turning back to May and Peter, “Guys, this is Dr. Chelsea Grant, the best doctor around. Chels, this is May and Peter Parker.”</p><p>Chelsea raised an eyebrow at Willa, “So you made it over that bridge, huh? Took you long enough.” Chelsea raised her hand over the counter to shake both Peter and May’s hands.</p><p>“Nice to meet the both of you. You can just call me Chelsea, everyone does.”</p><p>Chelsea handed Willa files that needed to get dropped off to some rooms and turned to greet Mia with a hug. The two began to discuss how the next few days are going to go after Mia goes into labor, and May and Peter followed Willa as she went to get the files to the proper places.</p><p>Peter turned to look at his aunt, and seeing as she was just as confused as he was, he decided to ask his question. “Wil, how did you find this place?”</p><p>“Um,” Willa dropped a file in its place, and began to move to the next one, focusing on her work so she wouldn’t have to look them in the eye. “Well, I knew about this place because this is where I come to appointments and things because I can’t go to a hospital pretty much anywhere else.”</p><p>That answer didn’t help their confusion.</p><p>“Why not?” May asked, not sure what Willa was trying to say as she took the files from Willa’s arms to get her to stop and look at them.</p><p>Willa stopped and tried to protest, but May gave her best ‘You stop it right now’ look, and Willa sighed, but stood her ground before answering.</p><p>“Because you can’t be a mutant and go to a regular hospital. It is a liability in case a mutant’s powers go haywire if a doctor pokes you wrong or something, even though that isn’t how it works.”</p><p>“Okay, but you’re not a--” Aunt May stopped, stunned at what Willa was implying. “Wait, are you?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Willa whispered, deciding that the floor looked really pretty and she wanted to admire it. “I get it if you decide that you don’t want me around anymore. A lot of people don’t really care to be associated with mutants.”</p><p>Before anything else could happen, Aunt May gave Willa the biggest hug that she could, without dropping all the files, saying in her ear, “You know what we think about mutants, and you know what we think about you. You have nothing to worry about. You can’t get rid of us, not even if you tried.”</p><p>May didn’t let go and Willa looked ready to cry, relief flooding her once she realized that she wouldn’t lose the people that she called family. Willa knew in that moment; she truly couldn’t have found a better family if she tried.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Did Each Avenger Just Pick an Apartment to Visit?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>June 2016</em>
</p><p>It has been just a little over 3 months now, and in that time, a lot has changed. On March 27<sup>th</sup>, Mia gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Christina Maria Barnes, and it didn’t take long for her to become a handful either. It was quite the sight, Mia holding her little girl and Christina vanishing in front of everyone’s eyes. Everyone knew that because of who Christina’s parents are, she had a much higher chance to have the genetic changes that her parents did, as they were both experimented on, so Chelsea decided to run some tests, though the results were surprising. Her powers didn’t come from her parents’ genes, though they didn’t hurt. Christina possesses the X Gene, which changed the game a bit. Luckily for Mia, everyone at that hospital, Willa included, knew all about how to play the game with the government, and most of the time, the government made it quite easy.</p><p>Mia became very good friends with May, and May quite enjoyed having another woman to talk to. She came and helped with Christina while Willa and Peter were at school. What those two women didn’t know was that while Willa and Peter had patched up their friendship, it seemed like Peter was trying to slip away, and Willa wasn’t sure why. Peter was always daydreaming, and his grades had started to slip a little. He always seemed tired, even though he always told Willa he was going to bed earlier than before. Willa didn’t want to say anything to him because she didn’t want to hear him say that he didn’t want to be friends with a mutant. She took the time that he could give her, and she was quite okay with that. She just didn’t want to lose her friend.</p><p>“Peter,” Willa said as they climbed the stairs to their apartments, “you can’t actually think that the Accords are a good idea.”</p><p>Peter shook his head at her. “They are. You saw what happened in Laos, Wil. They can’t just do whatever they want. People got hurt when they didn’t need to.”</p><p>“I know that they can’t do anything they want, Pete, but you weren’t there. I’m not saying I know what happened, but whatever Wanda lifted in the air would’ve done a lot more damage on the ground, and bombs are always unstable,” she could tell he wanted to butt in, but kept going, “I know on the surface, the Accords sound like a great idea, but did you actually read the proposal? The countries who want to sign it, which is 117 countries, by the way, would have to sit down and decide where to send them. If something like what happened four years ago happened again, the Avengers couldn’t do anything legally to help until the UN voted to send them. If they didn’t wait, they’d get arrested.”</p><p>Peter pondered that for a moment. “Okay, valid point.”</p><p>“When you don’t fix the thing before the thing is put in place, the thing becomes a lot harder to fix.”</p><p>“Okay, that right there, sounds a lot like this has happened to you before.”</p><p>“That is a story for another time, Petey. Do you have all of the notes for the history project?”</p><p>Peter and Willa both walked into his apartment because they knew that Mia would be sleeping, and they didn’t want to wake her up while they were working on their project. Being a mom is hard work.</p><p>“Yeah, I got them,” Peter said, turning to the living room. “Hey Aunt May. You know something, Willa and I saw this crazy car outside...”</p><p>Peter and Willa both stood there, not sure what to think, especially since the MIA Avenger was across the hall. Sitting on Peter’s couch was none other than Tony Stark.</p><p>Before May could say anything, Willa looked at Peter and said, “I think you’re busy, Pete. I’ll see you later.” Peter just nodded and Willa started backing up before turning around and walking back out the door. All Willa heard was something about a grant from the September foundation.</p><p>Willa just shook her head as she opened the door to her apartment, as Tony Stark showing up at Peter’s apartment started solidifying her theory of why her best friend is disappearing all the time. Her theory: Peter Parker is Spider-Man.</p><p>Willa walked into her apartment, shut the door as fast as she could and as quiet as she could because she thought Mia would be asleep, but it turns out that Mia was wide awake, sitting on the couch with one Clint Barton.</p><p>“Jesus Christ.” Willa was just about done with surprise visits. “Did each Avenger just pick an apartment to visit?”</p><p>“Wil, what did you say?” Mia questioned, quite confused why Willa would say that.</p><p>“Well, Tony is currently across the hall.” Clint looked very confused, but Mia looked surprised.</p><p>“You’re kidding.” Mia couldn’t believe her best friend was right across the hall, even though she hasn’t seen him in years.</p><p>“I’m really not,” Willa stated, pursing her lips, “My theory is really looking to turn into fact.”</p><p>Clint, still very confused, just decided to stop that conversation because he had other things to do. “Alright, look, I’m here because Cap asked me to come get you, kid. He needs your help with something, but I do need to know why Mia is here. Cap didn’t mention it, and I’m pretty sure that she would totally be quite useful in this fight.”</p><p>Willa looked surprised that he would even bring that up, figuring that Mia already explained that part of the story. Willa looked to Mia with a face of confusion.</p><p>“Clint,” Mia sighed, knowing it was bound to come up, “Steve doesn’t know I’m here and he doesn’t know why I dropped off the face of the Earth. As much as I want to see the rest of you again, I can’t afford that right now---”</p><p>From the other room, you could hear a baby start to cry, and Mia immediately hopped up to go get Christina up from her nap. Clint just looked to Willa.</p><p>“Was that a kid?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Willa deadpanned, rubbing her face, “it was. Look, I’ll go help Steve with his problem, but if I go, you can’t tell anyone that she’s here, or that she’s got a daughter. She’s here to stay hidden, and I told her I would do anything and everything I could to keep it that way.”</p><p>Clint thought that over as Mia walked back out with a little girl wrapped up in her arms.</p><p>“Clint,” Mia said, “meet Christina Maria Barnes.”</p><p>Clint just stared for a minute, trying to piece together what Mia could’ve been doing this whole time, before he had a thought, and everything started to fall into place.</p><p>“You went looking Barnes after the Triskelion fell, which I’m guessing is the mission that Steve mentioned that you were on.” Mia nodded, and Clint kept going, “Then you found out you were pregnant and knew you couldn’t be on the run, and if you came back to us, there would be too many questions, so you stopped taking Steve’s calls and found the kid here,” he pointed to Willa, “and decided to stay here, hidden.”</p><p>Mia sighed “I know that it isn’t ideal, but it’s what I’ve got to do, and everything changes when you become a parent. I want to help, but I can’t go.”</p><p>Clint stood up and said, “Listen Mia, what you did, are doing, takes a lot of skill and dedication.  I know what it is like to hide a family. I’ve got a wife and 3 kids, I would love for them to meet you sometime, and I didn’t tell anyone until absolutely necessary because I couldn’t put them in danger. Your secret is safe with me, but the kid and I have gotta go if we’re gonna get where we need to go. We’ve got a few more to pick up.”</p><p>Willa nodded and went to change her clothes, making sure that it would be something that wouldn’t easily tear or succumb to the cold. Mia followed her into her room.</p><p>Mia appeared at the door, having left Chris with Clint in the other room, and looked at Willa, “You know, you don’t have to go. They’ll be fine without you.”</p><p>“But I do have to go Mia,” Willa said, putting some extra clothes in a bag in case she needed to change, “I’ve thought about this, and I can handle it. I told Clint I would go if he promised not to tell, and I don’t think he would even if I didn’t go. But if I didn’t go, someone else would come looking for me, and then find you which I promised I wouldn’t let happen. Plus, if there is anything you want me to give Serge, now would be a great time to give it to me.”</p><p>Mia knew that she wouldn’t be able to convince Willa not to go, so she wrote a quick note, found a picture of her and Christina and put it in an envelope.</p><p>“Be careful,” Mia said as she handed the envelope to Willa, “Do you have your bracelet with you?”</p><p>“Yeah, I’ve got it,” Willa said holding up her wrist. Willa’s bracelet was a technology that she had developed a while ago for the occasion of if she got into a fight. This bracelet would monitor her vitals and the data would be sent to Mutant Memorial, where Chelsea could see it. It also had a panic button built in, so Chelsea, who is a mutant who can teleport, could come and get her back to the hospital.</p><p>Mia gave her a huge hug and walked her back out to Clint.</p><p>Clint looked up and saw the two of them and smiled. Though he didn’t want to hand Chris back to her mom, he knew he had too.</p><p>As he handed Chris back to Mia, he asked “Ready kid?”</p><p>Willa just smiled, glad that she had finally gotten to meet a member of Mia’s family, “Yeah. Let’s get this done. I’ve a got a Chemistry test next week that I would love to have time to study for.”</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>After picking up a few more people, they had finally made it to the Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany. Willa didn’t care much for the journey, though it was a good time for her to do chemistry equations in her head. She’d heard from Clint that Wanda’s powers were a lot like Mia’s except that Wanda could infiltrate the mind, and that made Willa very cautious of her. Willa had already had someone infiltrate her mind, and she didn’t care for it. Scott Lang, on the other hand, seemed to be a major fanboy of the Avengers. He didn’t stop talking unless he was asleep because he was geeking out, and if Willa wasn’t so anxious, she probably would have found it funny.</p><p>When they pulled up, she was sitting behind the front seat trying to sleep, but it was hard because she knew that Wanda was looking at her, so instead she thought about her chemistry equations. Clint saw Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, and James “Bucky” Barnes standing next to a few vehicles, so that was where he parked. Both Wanda and Scott climbed out after Clint opened the side door of the van, wanting to get the game plan, but Willa was so engrossed in her own mind, thinking about Peter, that she didn’t care what they had to talk about, plus Willa didn’t care much to listen to introductions, as she had already heard the stories.</p><p>She’d ran the situation with Peter over and over and she couldn’t put the pieces together. None of it made sense.</p><p>
  <em>If he really is Spider-Man, why didn’t he tell me? </em>
</p><p>At first, she thought that maybe it was because he didn’t want her to worry, because she knew that she would worry, and she’d been friends with him long enough that she knows that he would know it. Then the thought crossed her mind that maybe he thought she would tell Aunt May because she was worried, and Aunt May can get quite scary when she is angry, and she would be angry that Peter would be going out and could get hurt. However, the last reason she had come up with was the most troubling, and the one that she focused on most often. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t trust her enough to tell her.</p><p>And in her mind, she had rationalized that thought. She noticed that he started pulling away right after him and May found out about Mia, but she thought that they had gotten over that. The next reason that came to mind was one that she wished hadn’t. Maybe he didn’t tell her because even though he acted like he was fine, he didn’t want to be around a mutant and figured that if he just stopped hanging out with her, she would just go away.</p><p>
  <em>I thought that he wouldn’t care, he said he wouldn’t, but he has been cancelling on me more lately---</em>
</p><p>“Kid, are you listening?” Clint said, waving his hand in front of her face. Everyone was staring at her.</p><p>“Yeah, sorry,” She said as she climbed from the truck, “I’m just not one for small talk. It’s kind of a thing with me, plus I already know who all of you are, so there wasn’t really a need for introductions.” Willa gave a small smile, trying to conceal the fear she could feel starting to creep to her chest, and Steve just gave her an irritated look for the sass she was giving off.</p><p>“Guys,” Steve started, rubbing his face, “This is-”</p><p>“A Stryker?” Bucky asked. Everyone just stared at him, not sure why he felt compelled to question a 14-year-old about her identity, or why he seemed to know who she was. He was not talkative. He’d hardly said a word to anyone.</p><p>Willa’s face softened. She looked to him and saw the pain in his eyes, and she knew why. She looked just like her parents, but no one else would know that because the Strykers were a fleeting memory to everyone except Bucky Barnes.</p><p>“Yeah,” she said, keeping her face in check so she doesn’t give herself away, “but you should know that I don’t blame you for what happened. It wasn’t your fault.” Noticing everyone’s curious looks, she decided it was best to introduce herself. “Like Steve was saying, my name is Willa.”</p><p>At this point, everyone but Willa and Bucky had no idea what was going on. Steve decided that they should move on to the more pressing matters.</p><p>Turning to look at Scott and Willa, “We’re outside the law on this one, so if you come with us, you’re a wanted man, and kid, respectively.”</p><p>Scott, knowing exactly how that feels, says “Yeah, well. What else is new?”</p><p>Willa just smiles. “You know I’m not breaking the Accords, Steve.”</p><p>Steve shrugged, “A mere technicality because there is way more legislation written for you already, so you don’t need the Accords.”</p><p>“’A mere technicality,’” she mimicked, though it seemed that some people had had enough of her.</p><p>“Alright Steve,” Sam said, taking a step towards Willa, “Why did you invite the kid? What does she do, anyways?”</p><p>From Sam’s tone, you knew he was serious, and the thought of why Steve had decided to invite a kid in the first place had crossed everyone’s mind, even Steve’s. Willa knew they would ask, and not even Clint knew exactly what she could do. She knew that girls were always underestimated, and she knew that being 14, she would be even more so. Before Steve could ask everyone to back off, he saw everyone’s eyes widen in amazement as they watched the 14-year old’s appearance completely change right in front of their eyes.</p><p>Her hair was the first thing to change. Everyone watched as her dark curls turned white as freshly fallen snow, and from there, their amazement didn’t stop. From the roots of her hair, they watched as her skin hardened before it crystalized, becoming ice. Eventually, her entire body crystalized, and just for fun, she decided to make a snowball in her hand.</p><p>Deciding she’d had enough fun freaking them out, she returned to her normal form and leaning back against the side of the van, Willa looked to Sam and said, “I don’t know Sam. ‘What is it that you do, anyways?’”</p><p>Everyone was amazed, and both Steve and Bucky let out a little chuckle, Steve because of everyone’s reactions, and Bucky because of her rebuttal to Sam. It then dawned on Bucky how long they had all been standing there when he decided to speak up.</p><p>“We should get moving.”</p><p>Clint steps forward, “I’ve got a chopper lined up.”</p><p>Before anyone could move, an alarm started blaring while a voice began speaking over the speakers. Everyone’s faces turn to form confusion, wondering what had set off an alarm. Willa could understand German well enough, though it didn’t take much to figure out what it could possibly be saying.</p><p>Without missing a beat, she asked, to no one in particular, “Are they evacuating the airport?”</p><p>Sam, looking unimpressed, turns to Steve. “Stark?”</p><p>Steve didn’t want to fight his friends but knew that him not signing the Accords was going to cause problems. He wished that his sister was there but knew there was no chance in her showing up, which might have been better in the long run anyways. After all, they wanted her just as bad as they wanted Bucky. Glancing at Willa, he couldn’t help regretting his decision in having Clint picking her up.</p><p>His face hardened with determination. He turned to everyone and said, “Suit up.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Look Dude, You'll Get Used to It</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The plan they all decided on was for Steve to go confront Tony, while Sam, Bucky, and Willa went looking for the Quinjet that Stark flew in on. Clint, Wanda, and Scott were assigned to Overwatch just in case something happened. Steve decided that the ones looking for the Quinjet should split into two groups, so that way they could cover more of the airport while Steve was stalling. Willa said she would go with Bucky because she knew that if someone caught him, she’d be able to keep pace and she also needed to get him alone to give him what Mia sent, but Sam disagreed, thinking Barnes should be with him instead.</p><p>Clint decided to side with Willa because he knew that she had something to give Bucky from Mia. “She’ll be fine Sam. I beat her back to her apartment from school and she had me knocked on my ass before I could turn around to say anything, showing me that she is more than capable of handling herself.”</p><p>Of course, he didn’t know if she could fight, but he figured that would help her get alone with Bucky, and she sent him a look of thanks as Sam agreed and they all got in position.</p><p>So now here they were, Willa and Bucky wandering around the airport, trying to find the Quinjet. Before they all split up, Clint had given her an extra comms unit so she could hear everything going on. However, she decided that as they rounded the fifth corner that they were far enough away from everyone for it to be okay to give Bucky his note. She took her unit out of her ear, and motioned for Bucky to do the same, so he did, because he didn’t know what to think of this kid that Steve had brought along.</p><p>He watched as Willa reached into her back pocket for something, and it was first instinct for him to expect a weapon. After all, he knew what he did to her, and he wouldn’t blame her if she did want to hurt him. Instead, she pulled out an envelope.</p><p>“For the record, Serge,” she said as she held out the envelope, waiting for him to take it, “I know it's hard to keep going when your life has been shitshow after shitshow, but I do believe that note should give you every reason to keep fighting. To make it back. You deserve that chance.”</p><p>She put her unit back in her ear, hearing crackling before reconnecting to hear Steve still stalling with Tony and Colonel Rhodes while she resumed her search for the Quinjet.</p><p>Bucky watched her turn around and continue on, doing the job that he was supposed to be helping with, but all he could do was stand there, feeling conflicted. He knows what he did. He is the reason that she doesn’t have her parents anymore, and he can’t wrap his mind around not blaming himself for what happened. He started forward, before realizing he never actually looked at what she had handed him, and when he did, he stopped dead in his tracks. Scrawled on the front of the envelope in the cursive penmanship he could never forget was:</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>James</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>Milly, </em>he thought. He didn’t know where Willa had gotten this, but he would know his first and only Love’s handwriting anywhere. He carefully opened the envelope, like it was the most delicate thing in the world and pulled out the note.</p><p>It read:</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>James,</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Please don’t be worried. We are alright. I just wanted to make sure you know that you have every reason in the world to keep fighting for us. Please don’t tell anyone that you’ve heard from me. There is a reason I need to stay hidden. I wish I could be there with you. We love you with all our hearts.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>He was overjoyed that she was alright, as he hadn’t seen or heard from her in such a long time, but he was confused. <em>Why does she keep saying ‘We’? </em>he thought. He went to put the not back into the envelope so he would put it in his vest for safe keeping when he noticed something else poking out of the envelope. When he looked inside, he found a picture of Mia holding a baby in her arms. He had no idea who the child was, or how Mia came to have her, so he turned the picture over, hoping to get some insight when he found something scrawled at the bottom.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Meet your daughter, Christina Maria Barnes, born March 27<sup>th</sup>, 2016</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Bucky couldn’t believe what he just read, and he read it a few more times just to be sure he did read it right and that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. <em>Christina Maria Barnes. </em>His daughter. He still couldn’t quite believe that what he had in his hand was true, and when he looked up, he saw Willa standing a few feet away, waiting for him before continuing to the next building. She could tell that he didn’t quite believe it, so she removed her comms unit again and said, “She showed up at my door, four months pregnant. I can assure you that that picture is quite real, and that she misses you a lot, and wishes that you could’ve been there.”</p><p>Bucky smiled, and Willa could tell that he hadn’t smiled like that in a long time. She put her unit back in her ear, but before she could turn around so they could keep searching, he has his arms wrapped around her in a hug and whispered, “Thank you for keeping them safe when I couldn’t.”</p><p>She smiled and nodded, but before she could say anything back to him, her comms unit crackled to life, Sam speaking, “I found it. The Quinjet’s in hanger 5. North Runway.”</p><p>“I guess that it’s time to get you to that Quinjet, Serge.” Willa took a few steps back, deciding it was time to become icy in case someone saw her on their way there.</p><p>“You know,” Bucky started, still amazed at what she could do, “that is so weird, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing it.”</p><p>Willa laughed as the two started jogging to their new destination, “Look dude, you’ll get used to it.”</p><p>They met up with Sam on the way, and all the destruction taking place outside the terminal had finally dawned on Willa. She watched as Wanda threw cars at Tony, keeping him distracted, and Rhodey trying to tase Steve while this guy in a cat suit attacks him. Willa didn’t recognize him.</p><p>“Hey, who is the guy running around in the cat suit?” She asks, looking at the other two as they ran a little faster.</p><p>“That is the king of Wakanda. Thinks Barnes murdered his dad in Vienna.” Sam says casually.</p><p>“Jesus,” Willa sighs. <em>Gotta be extra careful with that one then. Wouldn’t want to hurt the King of Wakanda. </em>“One more thing, don’t call me by my name in front of anyone, alright?”</p><p>Sam and Bucky gave her a look, an <em>‘Are you serious?’ </em>look.</p><p>“I’m serious,” she said, rolling her eyes at the two men, “No one that Tony brought can know who I am. I’m not breaking the Accords by being here, but I am breaking at least 50 U.S. laws alone. If I get caught here, I’m dead, like literally, so they can’t find out, and that goes for everyone else that can hear me over the comms too.”</p><p>Both Sam and Bucky nodded, and she heard Scott and Clint reply to her statement, which gave her hope that her cover wouldn’t be blown while she was here. She didn’t feel like starting her life over again.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Willa felt the hit before the sound of the glass breaking registered in her head. Spider-Man flew through the window, throwing her and Sam into the wall, leaving quite the hole to be fixed later. Bucky was able to dodge the hit by rolling out of the way, giving him a chance to incapacitate Spider-Man so the three of them could make it to the Quinjet. Willa heard the impact of the metal and waiting for the Spider to fly and hit something. That never came. Instead, she heard him talk.</p><p>“You have a metal arm? That is awesome dude!”</p><p>That was all it took for Willa to realize that that Spider was, in fact, Peter Parker, her best friend from Queens.</p><p>
  <em>Peter is a dead man.</em>
</p><p>Sam finally was able to get his bearings and decided to get in on the fun. He activated his pack and flew to grab Peter. He grabbed him and flew as high as he could, trying to give Willa and Bucky an opening to get to the Quinjet. Peter, who isn’t as dumb as he sometimes acts, shot a web and managed to disable Sam’s pack. Peter then shot another web so he would land safely and sending Sam straight into a kiosk, destroying it. Willa had had enough of Peter’s games.</p><p>Peter was so busy focusing on Sam and Bucky, that he neglected to remember that they had a third person with him. Willa decided to take that as an advantage. She created as big of an ice chunk as she could and threw it. <em>Smack! </em>Peter flew right between the two men, who hadn’t expected Willa to be that violent. Willa then created a hammer using her ice and flew at Peter, who had yet to realize what was going on, and sent him right through the window. All Sam and Bucky could do was stare at her, very surprised that she could pack that big of a punch.</p><p>She shrugged at the both of them, “Steve told you I could pack a punch; I don’t know why you didn’t believe him.”</p><p>Realizing they didn’t have much time as they thought, they started running towards the hangar, meeting up with everyone else, but Willa knew that it wouldn’t be that easy. It was never that easy. About 500 yards away from the Quinjet, a beam of pure energy shot down into the concrete, stopping them in their tracks. Willa almost ran right into it and would’ve if Bucky hadn’t grabbed her arm to stop her. She sent him a small look of thanks, and when Willa looked up to see what the beam had come from, she had no idea what she was looking at. Noticing who else was there, she decided that, having seen the press briefings, that ‘thing’ must be the Vision. He made her a little uneasy, and she took a few steps back, and bumped into Bucky, who gave her a reassuring look.</p><p>“Captain Rogers,” the Vision spoke, “I know you believe what you are doing is right, but for the collective good you must surrender now.”</p><p>Everyone was lined up. Captain America against Iron Man. Black Widow against Hawkeye. <em>Peter against Willa. </em>This was it. Family fighting family. Two sides fighting for the same thing two different ways. Willa knew what they all meant to each other. What they meant to Mia, and she couldn’t afford to let any of them hurt each other too bad. She was the odd woman out after all. Cap had the extra member, and everyone standing across from her had noticed, and that only made her want to hide behind Bucky even more, but knew she had to stand her ground. For Mia.</p><p>“Who's the kid Cap? Now the teams are unfair.” Tony knew that this would get on Steve’s nerves. Surprising Tony, Steve didn’t flinch, though that didn’t mean Steve hadn’t thought about his actions. This fight had already been more violent than he thought it would be. He knew he shouldn’t have had Clint go get Willa. Steve knew what would happen to her if they caught and arrested her. His girlfriend, Anna, had explained everything to him when she decided to move Willa to Queens, and he knew when Anna found out that he brought Willa, he’d be an even deader man, but he made his choice, and now he couldn’t back down.</p><p>Sam broke the silence. “What do we do, Cap?”</p><p>“We fight.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. I'm Not Elsa</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter does contain some blood, just a fair warning.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Willa was having a hard time keeping up. She could tell everyone was getting irritated with her because she wasn’t letting anyone get a strong hit in on anyone else. Bucky would get bashed in the head; he would land in some snow to cushion the blow and maybe trip up the other person. Sam would take a sharp turn up to get Rhodey to run into the ground; she’d give Rhodey a gust of wind, so he doesn’t run straight into the ground.</p><p>“Wil—” Sam started, before remembering it was his, along with everyone else’s, job to protect this girl’s identity – “Kid, will you stop doing that?”</p><p>“No, I will not Samuel,” she sassed as she kept T’Challa from sinking his claws into Bucky, “I’m not going to stop you from doing something you’ll regret.”</p><p>She watched as Steve broke some legs from under a shipping container, almost completely dropping it on Peter. Although she was quite mad at Peter for keeping this from her, she wasn’t going to let him get crushed. She thrust her hand out, watching as her icy wind picked up both Peter and the container, flipping it upside down and letting it drop, so that the shipping container didn’t do any damage and Peter still got knocked on his ass.</p><p>Seeing that Peter was only out of breath, she took back to the sky before finally tuning back into the conversation between her teammates.</p><p>“No, you get to the jet.” Sam flew around with Rhodey hot on his tail, “Both of you. The rest of us aren’t getting out of here.”</p><p>“As much as I hate to admit it, if we’re gonna win this one,” Clint agreed, firing off some arrows that exploded, “some of us might have to lose it.”</p><p>Finally shaking Rhodey off his tail after Willa got his attention, Sam piped up again, “This isn’t the real fight, Steve.”</p><p>Everyone knew what that meant, and they’d all comes to terms with it. Willa knew what that meant for her, and with every punch she blocked, every blow she dealt, she grew more and more regretful of her decision to come. She didn’t want this to be the day that got her killed, or worse, <em>caught</em>.</p><p>“Alright Sam, what’s the play?” Steve asked, knowing he’d just got all his friends arrested, or worse.</p><p>Sam distracted Rhodey from Willa so that she could go after the Vision. Sam spoke, “We need a diversion, something big.”</p><p>Willa landed behind a box after losing Vision, needing to take a few breaths before giving her input, “Are you talking like a giant ice monster or something? Because I’m not Elsa. I can’t swing that. I might be able to give you all a run for your money, but I haven’t done this much in a long time.”</p><p>They all could hear her heavy breathing, and with each breathe they heard, the worse they felt for getting her involved. This next part of the plan was as much about getting Steve and Bucky out of there as making sure Willa got where she needed to be.</p><p>“I’ve got something kinda big,” Scott piped up.</p><p>After finally evening out her breathing, Willa relaxed a little before feeling a wave of vibration. The next thing Willa saw was a giant Antman holding onto Rhodey’s foot, preventing him from flying away. Steve and Bucky take that as their cue to leave.</p><p>“Sam.” Bucky was sprinting for his life now. “You need to make sure that the kid gets out of here alright.” Bucky felt like he should be the one to do it. After all, he owed it to her after keeping his fiancée and daughter safe all this time. If Willa didn’t make it out alright, Mia wouldn’t have anyone to look out for her, and Bucky needed to know that Mia would have someone looking out for her.</p><p>“We got her,” Sam replied, keeping an eye on Willa as she shot to the sky to help Scott, “You get on the jet.”</p><p>“We’re serious, Sam,” Steve yelled as he dodged a repulsor blast, “If anything happens to her, Anna will kick my ass every day ‘til I die, resurrect me, and do it again.”</p><p>This time it was Wanda who replied. “We’ll take of her, Steve. We’ll get her home, I promise.”</p><p>Willa was comforted by the words that Wanda spoke, and felt that she may have judged the Scarlet Witch too harshly. Everyone watched as Scott started to tear the airport apart, throwing trucks and busses and ripping the wings from planes, and Willa didn’t know what to do. Some bus pieces came flying at her after Vision dismantled the one thrown at him, and her mind went into overdrive, using her powers to push them out of everyone’s way, not wanting anyone to get hurt.</p><p>              Her only thoughts after that consisted of hit, dodge, soften the blow, repeat. Over and over and over again. Get Tony off Sam’s tail. Stop a truck from hitting Peter. She watched as Bucky and Steve sprinted to the hangar as fast as they could. <em>Just a little bit longer. They’re almost there.</em></p><p>She heard the sound of a laser, and when she looked, she saw Vision slice through a command tower that would block the entrance to the hanger, and before Willa could react, Wanda used her powers and caught the debris, sending Willa a smile. That was enough to distract Willa, which gave Peter the time to wrap Scott’s legs completely in webs to get him to trip and fall over. Willa landed next to Scott and gave as much wind as she could so that it wouldn’t hurt so bad when Scott fell.</p><p>So focused on catching Scott, Willa didn’t notice Rhodey flying at Wanda until it was too late. He had seen how she was holding the debris so Steve and Bucky could get to the Quinjet, and blasted her with a sonic device, causing her to lose focus and drop the debris, which cut off the route to the Quinjet. Willa managed to be quick enough throwing some ice, so that the debris would freeze, giving Steve and Bucky the few extra seconds, they needed to get inside the hangar before the debris dropped and closed the route to anyone else. Willa noticed that Wanda was very out of it from the sonic blast, deciding that she owed it to Wanda to help.</p><p>She landed next to Wanda, holding a makeshift icepack in her hand for the headache that Wanda was bound to have. Setting the icepack on Wanda’s forehead, Willa said, “Here. It’ll help the headache.”</p><p>Wanda was grateful for it, knowing she wouldn’t be of much help for the rest of this fight, “Thanks.”</p><p>Willa saw the Quinjet taking off and felt proud that they’d managed to achieve their objective, until she saw both Tony and Rhodey following the Quinjet, trying to stop it. Willa shot into the sky with Sam, hoping to get both men in the metal suits grounded so they couldn’t follow the Quinjet. Willa was closer to the men than Sam, and she heard Rhodey yelling something about Vision, but she couldn’t quite tell what it was. She decided to look down at the ground, and saw Vision sitting with Wanda, and noticed something that Sam didn’t.</p><p>Vision was lining up for a shot at her and Sam.</p><p>“SAM DROP!”</p><p>He didn’t even think about it, and Willa looked back up and sped towards Rhodey, flying faster than she’d ever flown before, knowing her wind wouldn’t be enough to move him in time, and she wasn’t about to throw ice that could kill him if he dropped from this height. Instead, she did the one thing she could, knowing full well that this choice would come with consequences.</p><p>She got in between Vision and Rhodey. She flew up underneath him, so they were flying chest to chest, and she pushed him higher, getting him out of the way of the blast that she knew was coming, and it came full force.</p><p>At first, Willa didn’t feel anything. When she did, the pain was not even close to anything she’d ever felt. Everyone heard her scream, and they all stopped in their tracks to find where it was coming from. She felt the pain in her back, and then all she could feel was herself falling. And falling. And falling some more. Rhodey watched as this kid, this <em>little girl, </em>fall out of the sky because she got hurt saving him. He was the first to process what had happened and he shot down, trying to catch the girl that had saved his life, abandoning the Quinjet. Not long after, both Sam and Tony raced after.</p><p>The three men were racing to catch her. All anyone on the ground could do was watch. Wanda could barely lift her head to see Willa falling, and Vision knew that what had happened was his fault, and he didn’t know what to do. There was no way Clint would get there in time to help, and Peter? He could only watch, and all he could hear in his mind was that <em>scream. </em>It rattled him to the core, and he had no idea why.</p><p>Willa, realizing how close she must have been getting to the ground, had just enough energy left in herself to give herself some snow to land on, though she wasn’t sure how much it helped. She hit the ground hard, and she blacked out, but came to a few seconds later, noticing the impact had knocked her out of her ice form. She could feel the snow melting underneath her, due to the blood oozing out of her back, and she couldn’t decide if the snow felt nice or if it made her back burn. She watched the three men that had been racing to catch her land on the ground and start running towards her to help, but she saw Sam stop them.</p><p>At that point, she could finally tell what else was wrong. She went to stand up, and realized after a few tries, her legs weren’t moving, and in that moment, Willa was the most scared she ever been to date. She could handle when her grandparents were angry at her, but this was a whole new level. When the fear took over, Willa lost focus on trying to stay awake. She could feel herself going in and out and she needed Chelsea to get there ASAP before Sam couldn’t hold back Tony and Rhodey any longer.</p><p>She gathered all the strength she could to talk and raised her head to her device, hearing it crackle before it cleared, letting her know whatever she said would be heard.</p><p>“I gotta go, you guys,” she could feel the tears filling her eyes, the pain finally registering, “None of this was your fault. None of it. I chose to come. I’ll see you around, yeah?”</p><p>Sam, hearing how broken her voice sounded, turned around and looked at the girl he managed to get quite attached to in the three hours that he’d known her. He knew she was in pain, and it was eating him alive that he’d broken his promise. They all had broken their promise to keep her safe. He promised that he would take care of her, and when it mattered most, he couldn’t get there. He heard her crush her comms unit, and before he could stop them, both Tony and Rhodey took off towards her.</p><p>Willa’s subconscious took over and she created a giant storm; one she hadn’t created since the night her grandmother threw her down the stairs. She made it as big as she could and as thick as she could, not wanting Tony or Rhodey to try to fly through it and pressed the SOS button on her bracelet. A second later, there Chelsea stood, on the inside of Willa’s storm, horrified at what was in front of her.</p><p>“Willa, what happened?” She had to shout over the storm.</p><p>Willa’s voice was hardly above a whisper, and she wasn’t sure that Chelsea could hear her, “We gotta go. JSOC is on their way. We can’t get caught.” Willa’s words were slurring together, and she was starting to see spots, and even though Chelsea couldn’t hear what Willa said, she watched the storm start to wavier, and knew it was time to go before they both got caught being somewhere they were not supposed to be.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>That was it. The fight was over.</p><p>Everyone left at the airport who hadn’t signed the Accords was arrested and sent to a secret underwater prison, codenamed the Raft. Tony, after hours of searching, tried with no avail to find the girl from the airport. No one had ever seen her anywhere. There was no news footage anywhere with her in it and that bothered Tony. In his mind, this kid didn’t just learn how to do that overnight. She had to have come from somewhere.</p><p>He asked everyone being detained at the Raft if they knew her, and they all denied it. Willa did a lot to make sure that no one did anything that they regretted, and even if they didn’t know she had a plan to get out of there, they owed it to her to keep her secret. Even Wanda, who had come to realize that even though the girl didn’t trust her completely, she still went out of her way to make sure she wasn’t hurt.</p><p>“I’m not gonna ask again. Who was she?” Tony yelled, getting tired of everyone lying to him.</p><p>No one answered. In fact, no one even acknowledged that he asked a question, or that he was even there.</p><p>Tony, sighed, rubbing his face, “Look, I’ve knocked the ‘A’ out of their ‘A/V’. They won’t hear anything you say. I’m trying to help her. You saw the hit she took. She needs medical attention; except we don’t know where she went,” he paused, hoping that this would get through to them, “I can’t help her if I can’t find her.”</p><p>Clint had had enough of Tony’s whining. “We’re not helping you lock up a kid, Tony,” Clint said, staring at the wall, “Besides, she made it very clear to us that she didn’t want to be found if anything happened. She told us if she got caught, she was dead, ‘literally’.”</p><p>Tony just stared at Clint, puzzled at why he would say that. Who is this girl? Some super spy?</p><p>Wanda had turned to look at Tony, which was no small feat, considering they had strapped her into a strait jacket and put an electromagnetic collar around her neck, neutralizing her powers.</p><p>With as much energy she could muster, she glared at Tony, saying, “I saw the fear in her eyes, Tony. The fear of getting caught. She didn’t want to die in custody for protecting people.”</p><p>Tony scoffed at her, “She was protecting fugitives, Wanda. She must have known that when she signed on.” In Tony’s mind, there was no good reason that she would protect them from him. After all, he was trying to keep his family together.</p><p>“That wasn’t why she came, and if you paid any attention, you would know that. You watched what she did Tony, she pushed Rhodes out of the way,” Sam said, deciding that it was his turn to defend her. He walked to the glass to look him square in the face, and continued, “She didn’t let any of us hurt any of you too bad, regardless of if we invited her or not, and she did the same for all of you. I got annoyed with her, and asked her to stop making all of us pull our punches, and you know what she told me? She sassed back at me, telling me she was here to make sure nobody would ‘do something they’d regret,’” using his hands to make quotation marks, “I don’t care what you need to do, but you need to leave her out of the report. You won’t find her. None of us know her, and we don’t know how Steve knows her either.”</p><p>Tony pursed his lips at all of them, not sure how he felt. He wanted to keep his family together, but he also knew that that girl wasn’t part of his family. It also made him realize that Steve had been keeping more from him than he thought. Tony turned around to leave, knowing that whatever they did know about that girl, they would take with them to the grave.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. On A Brighter Note</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mia was worried. Very worried.</p><p>It had been almost two weeks now since Chelsea had popped into the Miller-Rogers apartment to tell Mia that Willa had been hurt, and Willa still hadn’t woken up. All sorts of wires coming off Willa, hooked up to different monitors showing her heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels. Mia, having not been back to the apartment except to get some more clothes, was doing her best to ward off the questions from May and Peter about Willa, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could do it. She knew that she should tell them, but she didn’t know what Willa would want her to say, so she decided to keep it to herself, at least until Willa woke up.</p><p>When Chelsea had come to get Mia, she felt like her whole world stopped, and Mia didn’t know what to do. She remembered it clear as day.</p><p>
  <em>Mia finally had some peace, so to speak. She had finally got Christina to go down for her nap, and now Mia had some time to herself, though she couldn't help but think of Willa. She knew that Willa was somewhere she shouldn’t have had to be, and Mia felt that it was all her fault. If she hadn’t chosen Queens as her place to hide, Willa wouldn’t have to be wherever she was right now, fighting the rest of Mia’s family. </em>
</p><p><em>Closing her eyes, leaning back against the couch, Mia tried to calm her mind. She knew that Willa could hold her own; she’d done it her entire life. Just when she had finally calmed down, she heard a </em>POP!<em> from behind her, scaring the daylights behind her.</em></p><p>
  <em>Whirling around, she saw a frantic Chelsea Grant.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Chels, you scared me. I thought you always called to give a heads up when you were coming?” When Mia saw the expression on Chelsea’s face, she knew something terrible had happened.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Chelsea was out of breath, but was still able to start explaining the situation, “Willa had to use her bracelet. I went to pick her up from Germany and got her into the Cryo Chamber as fast as I could after I stopped the bleeding. I don’t know when it will be, but I do know that when she wakes up, she’d want you and May and Peter to be there.” Mia had remembered when Willa showed her the Cryogenics Chamber the hospital had installed for her when she needed to cool off fast and was thanking all the gods that existed that they had done that when they did. Willa might not be alive if it wasn’t for that thing. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Chelsea started towards the door go and get May and Peter so they could go, but Mia grabbed her arm, stopping her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mia shook her head, saying, “May and Peter don’t know what her powers are, and, right now, I think it’s best not to tell them. If the government is able to find Willa, she wouldn’t want May and Peter to become targets. Plus, they’ll start asking questions, and I won’t know what to tell them.” Mia decided that it would be best to leave out the part about Peter possibly being Spider-Man. It wasn’t time to open that can of worms right now. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>As quickly and quietly as she could, Mia threw a few things in a bag, grabbed the diaper bag, and got Christina from her room so that Chelsea could take them back to Mutant Memorial to be there when Willa woke up.</em>
</p><p>Mia was brought out of her daydream when she felt some pressure on her hand and noticed that Willa had finally opened her eyes.</p><p>“Hey,” Willa whispered, a small, tired smile gracing her features.</p><p>“Hey yourself,” Mia smiled, sitting up to get a better look at her, “You know, if you wanted my attention, you didn’t have to go all the way to Germany to get it.”</p><p>Willa let out a laugh, and then winced, finally registering the pain from her fall. She looked down to see that the bruises and cuts on her arms had gone away. She moved to sit up, though her head was still throbbing, which she could handle.</p><p>Alarmed that Willa had tried to move, Mia stood up and put her hands gently on Willa’s shoulders, pushing her back down, telling her, “Don’t try to move Wil,” Willa just nodded her head as she let herself sink back into the pillows.</p><p>Mia murmured, “You’ve been out for almost two weeks,” she could feel the tears pricking in her eyes, “You almost died, Willa. If this hospital didn’t have a Cryo Chamber, you would be. What happened?”</p><p>That statement hit Willa like a brick. She’d never been more grateful for this hospital than she was in that moment. Willa, after taking a few deep breaths, went on to recount all of what happened. The smartass comments she made to Sam, which Mia enjoyed quite a lot, how happy Bucky was when she gave him the picture, what she did to make sure that no one got hurt, and lastly, how she took a laser to the back so that Rhodey didn’t get hurt.</p><p>Mia was amazed at what Willa had done for the people she considered to be her family, but also felt anger rising in her chest. “That was stupid, Willa,” Mia snapped, “You shouldn’t have gotten in between them like that. You almost died because of that, and they wouldn’t have known how to help you.”</p><p>“I know,” Willa reasoned, “but I told you I was going to make sure that no one got hurt. That no one would regret their actions. I meant it.” Mia shook her head at the girl, knowing that Willa had yet to break a promise that she made.</p><p>“On a brighter note,” Willa continued, happy to finally share this piece of information, “Peter is Spider-Man. I heard him talk at the Airport. He told Serge that it was cool that he had a metal arm when Peter caught his punch.”</p><p>Mia thought about what she just said a few times, not sure if she heard her right. Just as Mia was going to ask Willa about her statement, the hospital room door opened, and in walked Chelsea with Christina in her arms.</p><p>Chelsea was surprised to see that Willa was awake, but smiled none the less, saying, “Hey you two. I finished up her exam, and she’s doing just fine.” Chelsea gave Christina back to her mother and watched the little girl squeal in excitement. “Her control over her powers has gotten a lot better for her only being a few months old. She’ll be a force when she is up running around on her own.”</p><p>Mia just smiled at her little girl. She’d never imagined a life with kids, and she was glad that she had been blessed with Christina. She had no idea how much she’d been missing in her life. Then, because of her situation, she was blessed with one more, and without hesitation she would give up her life for the two girls in front of her.</p><p>Chelsea spoke up, turning to Mia, “Do you mind if I talk to Willa for a little bit, just the two of us?”</p><p>Mia shook her head and stood up, Christina in her arms, to head to the door. She squeezed Willa’s hand and said, “I’m going to go and get something to eat. If you need something, just give me a shout, alright?”</p><p>Willa smiled and nodded and watched as they walked out of the door. They waited until they heard the door click shut before Chelsea took a seat in the chair that Mia had vacated.</p><p>“Now that is just the two of us, why on Earth were you in Germany?”</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>After a few x-rays done on Willa’s back, Chelsea discovered a lot of damage done to Willa’s spinal cord. With Willa’s X gene and having been able to get her into the Cryo Chamber, her back started healing itself, though it was going to be a long road. Chelsea told her that in order to get her legs back to full strength, she’d have to do a lot of physical therapy, spend time in the Cryo Chamber every day, and she would be in a wheelchair until her strength was back up. Willa knew the consequences when she made her choice, and she would put in the work to get better.</p><p>She worked as hard as she could every day, doing everything she absolutely could to get better, and she knew that after this, she would never take walking for granted ever again. The only positive that they found was that when Willa took on her icy form, her legs worked just as they did before the accident. Chelsea then added meditation in her ice form to the list of daily exercises Willa needed to do every day as a part of physical therapy. Willa didn’t care for it very much, as the feeling of icing up made her panic, remembering what happened in Germany. </p><p>Chelsea discharged Willa from the hospital a month and a half later, which meant that she, finally, got to go home. When the three of them stepped foot back into their apartment in Queens, Willa let out a sigh of relief. As much as she loved being at Mutant Memorial, she loved being in Queens more. She missed the lights from the skyscrapers at night. She missed the sounds of the cars honking, she missed taking the trains just for some time alone. Most of all, she missed seeing May and Peter every day, and she was mad that she missed her and Peter’s weekly Ice Cream Day.</p><p>She was hesitant to knock on their door. She’d been gone for two months, without very much communication between them, and she didn’t know what they would think of her. Without letting her head talk her out of it, she knocked on the door three times and waited. She could hear that someone was home, though she wasn’t sure who it was that was on their way to answer the door.</p><p>When the door swung open, there was May Parker with a look of bewilderment on her face, like she couldn’t believe that Willa was standing there.</p><p>Willa raised her hand timidly and gave a little wave.  “Hi.”</p><p>“Willa! You’re back!” May led with one of her giant bear hugs, and Willa bit her lip, trying to keep from showing May her discomfort, “Why didn’t you tell us that you were coming back today?”</p><p>“I wanted to surprise you guys,” Willa answered, “I thought it would be fun.” Trying not to sound as if she was uninterested in talking to May, she went on to ask, “Is Pete here?”</p><p>Willa watched as May’s face turned to a small frown and knew that she had messed up. May knows that the fact that Willa had ignored him all summer had hurt him, so May decided to invite Willa in for a small chat to see if she could figure out what happened.</p><p>May moved to the side of the doorway and asked, “How about you come inside for a little bit?”</p><p>Willa gave a small smile as she stepped inside, having saw the look on May’s face. She knew that she was going to get questioned about why she was missing all summer. All she hoped was that her decision didn’t cost her the only true family in years. May walked to the kitchen, setting the plate she had been drying in the cabinet, before coming to sit across from Willa on the couch.</p><p>“Wil,” May started, not wanting to sound antagonistic towards the girl, “is everything alright with you? I know that it isn’t my business if you don’t want it to be, but you’ve never just up and left to do something or go somewhere without saying anything, and you’ve never left Peter in the dark about anything. He’s really sunk into the work with his Stark Internship the last few weeks and I want to tell you it isn’t because you haven’t been talking to him, but I can’t do that.”</p><p>Willa kept her head down, suddenly finding lots of interest in the pattern of the carpet. She knew that she couldn’t tell May about the real reason she was gone. That was never the plan, but she knew that eventually they would find out that she got hurt, so she started to put together a story, though the timeline was a little messed up. First and foremost, she had to tell May the real reason that she never called.</p><p>Tracing the pattern of the carpet with her eyes, she whispered, “I didn’t want to bother you.”</p><p>May’s eyes widened. She wasn’t sure if she heard Willa right, so she asked, “What did you say, Willa?”</p><p>Willa got the courage and looked May in the eye and repeated herself, this time a little louder. “I didn’t want to bother you. Either of you.”</p><p>May couldn’t believe what she heard, and this was the first time, she believed, that she truly saw the girl in front of her. The girl who tried to handle everything herself, so she didn’t inconvenience other people, even if she ran herself straight into the ground. The girl who always acted like she was fine but was going through the hardest time of her life without anyone there. May reached out and set a hand on Willa’s knee, showing her that she did care. May would always care about Willa.</p><p>“Willa,” May started, “what happened?”</p><p>It hurt Willa, a lot, knowing that she had to keep parts of the story to herself, but if May got hurt because someone came looking for her, she would never forgive herself.</p><p>“I was only supposed to be gone for the day,” Willa confessed, “Not even a whole day. A couple hours at most. Chelsea called and said that she needed me to come and fix a server. The hospital wasn’t supposed to busy that day so the server wouldn’t be needed.”</p><p>“Okay,” May didn’t understand how that had anything to do with what they were talking about, “So then why were you gone for almost two months?”</p><p>“There was an accident,” Willa continued, knowing if she waited any longer, the true story might slip, “I was walking past the simulator while a new patient with fire powers was in there, but whoever was supposed to latch the door didn’t latch it right. The new guy was throwing his fireballs around, and one went at the door and sent it flying open while I was walking by. Lucky for me, uh, the fire dissipated, but the force sent me hard into the wall. It broke my back.”</p><p>Just the thought of her back sent a wave of nausea through Willa’s system, making her lose her train of thought for a few seconds, and least until she felt May nudge her knee. To finish, Willa said “I was actually in a coma for those two weeks you didn’t hear from me.”</p><p>All in all, that story didn’t make her feel too bad, because most of it had happened. She just left some parts out and switched the timeline a little. There was a new guy who had fire powers and the door really didn’t latch right. That was true. The difference was that Chelsea was pushing her in a wheelchair when the door was forced open by the fire and Chelsea was able to shove Willa forward and teleport before she was hit with the fireball, so no one was harmed.</p><p>Before May could say a word, Willa decided she needed to get one last thing in. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you guys, but I really didn’t want to bother you. When I woke up, Mia told me how excited Peter is about his internship and I didn’t want to ruin that for him. I didn’t want either of you to drop everything for me.”</p><p>May couldn’t believe the strength, and stupidity, of the girl, no, the woman in front of her. She could have died, but instead pulled through and decided to not tell anyone about it.</p><p>“Willa, for as smart as you are, you’re quite stupid.” May moved to sit on the coffee table, so that she was directly across from her, so that it would help get her point across. “You have been in our lives for three years now, and Peter and I wouldn’t change a thing. We love you. We care about you. You couldn’t ever be and wouldn’t ever be an inconvenience to us.”</p><p>Willa just smiled at May, her eyes starting to water, knowing that May didn’t hate her for what she did. The real story, unfortunately, would just be another thing to add to the pile being locked away for a different day. Willa just settled for another hug, and this time May hugged a lot looser, now knowing about Willa’s back. The feeling that Willa got from that hug was even better that the one from one of May’s bear hugs.</p><p>Suddenly, May jerked back, as though the reality of the situation hit her full force. Wide-eyed, she asked, “How are you even walking right now, Willa? It has only been two months.”</p><p>Willa let out a small laugh and smiled at May’s curiosity. “Being a mutant has its perks. Being in a hospital when it happens, even more so. Every weekend until school starts Chelsea wants me to come spend the weekend so that she can watch my back more closely. Then when school starts, I’ll be in charge of getting my physical therapy done on my own with one appointment towards the end of each month to check up on it until she says I’m 100%.”</p><p>May shook her head, as if she couldn’t believe how put together Willa was, given the circumstances. “I’m proud of you Willa. You are quite the woman. How about you, Mia, and Chris come over for dinner so we can catch up and you can explain all of that to Peter?”</p><p>As much as Willa wanted to, she thought it would be best if she talked to Peter one on one. “As much as I would love that, I think Mia is ready to sleep in her own bed for a while, and Chris is totally with her on that. I’m also 95% sure that they are both already asleep, but I would like to see Peter. Any idea when he’ll be back?”</p><p>May shook her head. “You’re more that welcome to wait here, though. I’m never sure when he’s going to be home because he’s got lots of different projects. You could try and text him, but he hasn’t been very good at answering those lately.”</p><p>Willa hoped he would. After all, they had a standing hangout. “I’ll take my chances. It is Ice Cream Thursday.”</p><p>May just smiled and waved her out, hoping that the rift between the two teens wouldn’t grow any larger.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>There Willa sat, waiting at the ice cream shop that her and Peter visited once a week. When she got there, she ordered what she always got, a cone of Cookies and Cream, and took the table her and Peter always did. She’d texted Peter a few times, hoping he would respond, but he never did. She called him a few times, but it went straight to voicemail. She’d even texted May to see if he went home without checking his phone, but he wasn’t there either. She decided he must be out being Spider-Man.</p><p>Willa still didn’t know what to think of that revelation. She was happy for him, mad at him, and scared for him all at once. She knew that all Peter ever wanted to do was help others. She watched Flash Thompson give him a hard time throughout their time at school. She watched how he idolized the Avengers growing up, how he wanted to be one. She wasn’t sure how he got his powers, but she was sure he was doing his best to help everyone that needed it.</p><p>But she was mad at him. He never told her what happened, and she didn’t know why. You always hear about how “the heroes shouldn’t reveal their identity because that keeps their loved one safe” stuff. It’s in all the movies and TV shows, except you see the Avengers’ faces plastered across billboards and magazine covers. Everyone knows who they are. Yeah, it has backfired a few times, but you don’t see it that often. But Willa can protect herself. She knows she can. She’s handled whatever people have thrown at her up to this point and doesn’t plan on stopping.</p><p>There was one thing that she always came back to when this was on her mind. <em>He doesn’t trust her. </em>That is what her brain couldn’t get past. She knew that she kept Mia from both Peter and Aunt May, but she thought they got past it. She knew there was more that she was keeping, but she couldn’t afford to lose Peter, the only friend that she’s had her age, besides her other friend Michelle, ever.</p><p>Willa looked down. <em>5:42 PM.</em> She’d been sitting there for 4 hours without a word from Peter. Part of her wanted to be mad, but the other part understood if he was ignoring her. After all, she’d been MIA all summer. She decided to just get Peter a pint of Rocky Road and drop it off. It was good that the Ice Cream Parlor was close to the apartment because otherwise she would have to explain to Aunt May why it hadn’t melted.</p><p>When Willa knocked on the Parkers’ door, she didn’t expect Peter to answer it.</p><p>“Um, hi Petey. It’s been a while.”</p><p>“Hey.”</p><p>They both stood there, not quite sure what to say.</p><p>“Um,” Willa started, fidgeting with the necklace that she had for as long as she could remember, “I figured you just didn’t get my message, or see my calls, so I brought you some Ice Cream from down the street.” She held out the pint of Mint Chip to him.</p><p>Peter stared at her for a moment before reaching to take it.</p><p>“Thanks Wil.” Peter just stared back at her, not sure what else there was to say. He noticed that her hair had gotten longer and that, for whatever reason, she seemed to be more cautious about her movements. He watched her play with her necklace, continuously running her thumb over the gem placed at the center of the snowflake. She only did that when she was truly nervous about something.</p><p>Deciding it was best to keep the conversation moving, Peter asked, “When did you get back?”</p><p>From Peter’s tone, she could tell that he wasn’t pleased with her, but answered, “I got back earlier this afternoon. I stopped by and May said that you weren’t here, so I figured I’d text you and see if you wanted to get some ice cream and catch up. May told me that you’ve been doing a lot of work on the Stark Internship, which is super awesome by the way,” Willa knew she was rambling, but she really didn’t want to mess this next part up, “Um, I, um, actually had something I wanted to tell you before I get too far off track--”</p><p>“Oh, you mean like why you just left and didn’t say a word?”</p><p>That sentence stopped Willa right in her tracks.</p><p>“What?” She was dumbfounded.</p><p>“Come on Wil,” Peter was getting angry, “you don’t just up and leave. Ever. Not in all the time I’ve known you, and especially not when you’ve gone to Salem. That’s not like you. And then, after about 2 weeks, you decide to finally take pity and answer me like no time has passed and we’re best friends?”</p><p>“But we are best friends, Pete.”</p><p>“Obviously we’re not, because best friends don’t just leave each other hanging, and if that is what is going to happen from now on is that you just disappear without saying anything, then I don’t need you around. I’ve got other friends that will actually be there for me to talk to. Bye Willa. See you around,” Peter finished, slamming the door.</p><p>Willa was stunned. Not once, did she ever think that this would be what ended her and Peter’s friendship. She could feel the tears streaming down her face, but she had so many emotions swirling she wasn’t sure what emotion drew out the tears.</p><p>If Willa had to point out a major flaw that she had, it would be that she is incredibly stubborn. Especially when someone makes her mad. She doesn’t like to be yelled at, and after she has, she will NOT be the one to start that conversation, even if she’s desperate.</p><p>Willa walked back to her apartment, straight past Mia, who was sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, into her room, and slammed the door.</p><p>Willa was over being emotional. Her grandparents had drilled into her that emotions make you weak. Willa knew that wasn’t the case, but she spent so much time trying to help others with their emotions that, by the time she was done, she just didn’t have enough left in her to deal with her own.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Ding!</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Momentarily distracted her from her emotions, she got up to look at her computer to see a message from <em>TechPrincess, </em>a friend she’d made online.</p><p>Willa and <em>TechPrincess</em> met when they started pointing out flaws in the actual MIT students’ project plans and they found a friend in each other. She also knew that whoever <em>TechPrincess </em>was is in fact her age, despite the technology knowledge she had.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>New Message</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>From: TechPrincess</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>To: Snowygal76</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Hey Snowygal! I know that it’s very last minute, but I think I’m going to get to go to the conference in Oakland next weekend and wanted to know if you’d be there? I know that you talked about going and I also remember you said you lived in New York, but I thought I would put it out there to see.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Willa had honestly forgotten all about the conference. It was on the concept and usability of Nanotechnology in everyday life, and Willa wanted to go. She decided that if her and Peter weren’t going to talk anymore, why should that stop her?</p><p>She went to quick ask Mia, knowing that if she just tried to go, Mia would never let her out of the apartment again. It took some convincing on Willa’s part, and she even called Chelsea and convinced the both of them that Chelsea could drop her off and pick her up and then she would already be with her for her physical therapy that weekend.</p><p>After hearing that Chelsea was alright with that plan, Mia decided that she could go, but she had to call if her back started to hurt too much. Besides, even though Mia didn’t tell Willa that she heard the argument, she did hear it, and this conference sounded like a good way to get Willa’s mind off it.</p><p>Little did Mia know; she was about to get sucked into something she thought she would never have a chance at.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>The week went by, and now Willa was standing in Oakland outside after the lecture with her friend <em>TechPrincess, </em>or better known to the entire world as Princess Shuri of Wakanda.</p><p>“Look,” Shuri started, “all I’m saying is that the capacitors wouldn’t work like that with that design. The tech would blow up.”</p><p>“Yeah, I know that. I’m not the one who said it, so why are you coming at me for it?” Both girls just laughed.</p><p>For the both of them, this time was a moment of peace. Shuri knew that Willa had figured out who she was early on, but it was a breath of fresh air when Willa told her she didn’t care that she was an actual Princess. Shuri was grateful to have someone that treated her like a normal person, not the princess of some African Country.</p><p>“I’m glad that we got to do this, Shuri. It was nice to meet you in person, officially, and this conference was so interesting.”</p><p>“I most definitely concur Willa.” Willa laughed at her properness. “It is nice to see what normal people do throughout the day, and, though this may never happen, I would love for you to come home with me some time,” Shuri whispered the next part, “The things that we have in Wakanda make what they proposed sound like it was from the Stone Age.”</p><p>As they kept walking, Shuri noticed her brother, T’Challa, and the Dora Milaje walking toward them.</p><p>She looked down, and stepped behind Willa, hoping they hadn’t seen her, “Shit.”</p><p>Willa looked at her, concerned by her comment until she saw where she was looking. She let out a laugh.</p><p>“You totally did not get permission to come, did you?”</p><p>Shuri just glared at her.</p><p>“Shuri,” T’Challa started, “Where have you been? You know when you go somewhere you are to take one of the Dora with you,” referring to the women standing behind them.</p><p>As Shuri began to argue with him quietly in Xhosa, the official language of Wakanda, Willa wasn’t sure if she should leave or if she should wait and discuss what she really had wanted to do in Oakland. Before too long, T’Challa noticed her standing there and decided to question her.</p><p>“I’m sorry, who are you?”</p><p>Shuri looked offended at her brother’s lack of manners. “Brother—"</p><p>“It’s fine Shuri,” Willa smiled, “I do suppose I didn’t get to introduce myself properly in Germany as I took quite a nasty fall, but I am Willa Miller. It is nice to meet you, your Highness.”</p><p>Willa tilted her head forward slightly, in a show of respect, and that gave the Wakandans a second to realize what came out of her mouth, before they all turned defensive, ready to spring into action if need be.</p><p>“Um,” Willa took a step back, feeling intimidated, “I promise I’m not here to fight any of you. I was actually here for the presentation today.”</p><p>“Brother,” Shuri argued, “She hasn’t done anything, and if she wanted to, she had plenty of chances. She is my friend.”</p><p>Willa gave Shuri a look of thanks, knowing that she had at least one person who would stick by her. Realizing that Chelsea would be there soon, Willa decided that it was now or never.</p><p>“This actually does save me some trouble, actually,” she reached into her bag, pulling out a large manilla envelope, “because I was going to try to find you at the embassy later anyways. I wanted to talk to you about Sergeant Barnes.”</p><p>T’Challa wasn’t sure what to say because he had no idea how she knew Barnes was in Wakanda in the first place.</p><p>Keeping his face as still as he could, he answered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ms. Miller.”</p><p>Willa gave him a look. “I know that you can’t admit he’s there because of Diplomatic Relations and all that other fun, political stuff, but I know he’s there because the tracker in the picture that I gave him stopped transmitting at the Wakandan border, and after the way you went at him in Germany, I don’t think he’d have gone to hide there unless you told him he could, which would mean you know he’s there.”</p><p>Though T’Challa was good at keeping a straight face, he was quite surprised at what the now 15-year-old had managed to put together.</p><p>“I,” Willa stopped, trying to organize her thoughts before continuing, “I know that it is selfish of me to ask you this, but could you give this to him please?” Willa asked, holding out the envelope for him to take, “It would mean a lot to Mia, and me, if you did, and there some plans for a new arm that I’m sure Shuri would take care of for him.”</p><p>It took a moment to figure out who she meant when she mentioned ‘Mia’, but when he did, he had faith that this girl wouldn’t tell anyone what she knew. She had just admitted to him that she knew where the missing Avenger was, and that she was alright. He knew she didn’t have to give that information up, but she did to show that he could trust her. Between her information and his sister’s trust in this girl, he believed he had enough and took the envelope, agreeing to pass it off to Sergeant Barnes.</p><p>“Thank you. She wants him to know that she is okay, and that she loves him. I don’t know exactly what she put in there, but she might have put something in there for you too, kind of to explain herself.”</p><p>T’Challa nodded, and before he could turn to leave, she had to add something to her instructions. “One more thing, your Highness. Mia would prefer that you didn’t tell anyone where she is or mention that you know. She saw how easy it was for them to get to James, and she’d got just as big of a target on her back as he does. The less people that know where she is, the better.”</p><p> Behind T’Challa, she noticed Chelsea waving at her, signaling that it was time for them to go. Willa nodded so Chelsea knew that she saw her before focusing back on T’Challa, Shuri, and the Dora Milaje.</p><p>“I’ve actually got to go,” Willa said, “I’ve got physical therapy today. Thank you again for what you’re doing, and if you ever need anything, Shuri knows how to get a hold of me.”</p><p>With a quick wave, Willa hurried, though it wasn’t as fast as she wanted to be, over to Chelsea before she started talking all about the awesome technology that she could integrate into the work at the hospital before they turned the corner to walk back to the alley before Chelsea transported, or apparated as Chelsea liked to call it (Chelsea was a huge <em>Harry Potter</em> fan, in fact, she introduced Willa to it), back to Salem so Willa could finish her physical therapy and get home in time to get to bed to get herself mentally prepared for the school year that was going to start in a few days.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Know Your Facts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Willa didn’t know what she thought it was going to be like without Peter at school, but she didn’t think it would be like this. She roamed the halls by herself, ate lunch with Michelle, roamed the halls by herself some more, went to Academic Decathlon practice, headed to physical therapy, and was ready to fall asleep as soon as she got home, only to do it all over again the next day.</p><p>Peter noticed, but he couldn’t bring himself to care because he thought that he was in the right. He knew that she was hiding something from him, and he doesn’t need to be worrying about what it is when he has other things to do.</p><p>At the end of the week, Willa felt like collapsing into a puddle. She was so tired, and her back ached, but she still had two more things to accomplish for the day: Academic Decathlon and Physical Therapy. After that, she could go home and go to bed like she so desperately wanted to. She walked down the hall to the gymnasium, taking her time to focus on her movements. She was walking much slower than she wanted to be, but she was still grateful that she could walk at all. She didn’t know that Peter was walking up behind her and noticed how slow she was walking.</p><p><em>She never walks that slow. Not even if she’s got a lot on her mind. Wait, why do you care? You’re not friends anymore, </em>Peter thought to himself. He just walked around her without saying a word and ran ahead into the gymnasium.</p><p>When Willa got to practice, a little later than she wanted, she saw everyone looking at her, some looking relieved that she was there, others looking angry.</p><p>“Jesus, guys,” Willa said, finding her chair and setting her bag down, “What did I do that you’re all staring at me?”</p><p>“Well,” her ‘friend’ Liz said, “Did you know that Peter was going to quit the team?”</p><p>Willa wasn’t surprised that he did, but she was surprised that Liz was getting angry at her for it.</p><p>“I’m not surprised, Liz, if that is what you want to know,” Willa rolled her eyes at the angry teen, “He has quit a lot of things, and him and I aren’t really friends at the moment, so I’m not responsible for his actions. If you’ve got something to say to him, then say it to him, not to me.”</p><p>With that, Willa moved her bag to the floor and took her seat, ready for questions to be thrown at her.</p><p>Liz was annoyed that Willa had just ‘won’ their little argument, and she really wanted to catch Willa off guard, so before they started, Liz took a pen to her list of questions, marking which ones she thought were the hardest, so she could save them for Willa.</p><p>Liz asked, “What are people who have Alektorophobia afraid of?”</p><p>Without missing a beat, Willa rang her bell and answered, “Chickens.”</p><p>Liz went around the room again and when she got back to Willa, she asked, “Who won the first Football World Cup and in what year did the game take place?”</p><p>Willa again rang her bell and answered, “Uruguay won the first championship in 1930.”</p><p>Round and round they went, and people had started to pick up on what Liz was doing each time she got to Willa. They noticed the way she’d have smirk on her face while see asked Willa a question, then watch her face fall when Willa got it correct. Everyone thought it was a little funny that Liz couldn’t find a question that Willa didn’t know.</p><p>“Okay everyone,” Liz announced, “Willa gets the last question for the day and then you can all go home.”</p><p>She turned to Willa, looking her directly in the eyes, and said, “Willa, when was the Mutant Protection Act signed into Law?”</p><p>Willa scoffed when she heard the question, even though no one knew she was a mutant. She took this question personally, because that bill would’ve made her life a lot easier, though the United States Government didn’t see it that way.</p><p>She took a breath, calming herself, before saying, “It wasn’t ever signed into law. The bill was proposed, barely made it through the House, and was voted down by the majority in the Senate, therefore killing before it could be signed by the President.”</p><p>Everyone watched as Liz smiled, finally thinking that she found a question Willa didn’t know, and, almost excitedly, said to Willa, “That’s wrong, Willa. It did pass at the end of 2001.”</p><p>When Willa noticed what Liz was doing, she decided early on that she wasn’t going to let Liz get under her skin, but being a mutant, this is where she drew the line.</p><p>“I’m not wrong Liz,” Willa said, leaning forward, feeling the need to try and intimidate Liz, “the Mutant Protection Act was stuck down in 2001, right after 9/11, because they thought the Mutants were too big of a threat to grant equal human rights, equivocating them with terrorists. If you’re thinking something that got signed into law having to do with Mutants, then you’re probably thinking of the Public Safety Act of 1980, which effectively let businesses decide if they wanted to let mutants on the premises, which wasn’t great, because almost every single business in the United States of America decided they didn’t want mutants on their property. Luckily, the mutants at the time decided to do everything they could to get the law overturned. Time went by, and the Public Safety Act of 1980 made its way to the Supreme Court in 2009 and was repealed as it was deemed ‘unconstitutional.’”</p><p>Liz, and everyone else in the room, for that matter, was shocked that Willa talked back to Liz, and that she knew so much about Mutant Legislation. Liz was about to argue her point when Mr. Harrington, the Academic Decathlon Advisor, decided it would be a good time to speak up.</p><p>“She’s right, Liz,” he started, looking at the research he’d done on the topic on his phone, “I looked it up while she was talking. The Mutant Protection Act didn’t make it all the way through Congress, and the last part about the Public Safety Act of 1980 is true too.”</p><p>Everyone was speechless. They had never seen this side of Willa and they weren’t sure how or why she knew everything that she did. Even Michelle, who never really shows emotions, had an impressed look on her face. Willa was glad that practice was over, because she had had enough from Liz.</p><p>“I’ve actually got an appointment to make,” Willa, said, snatching her bag from the floor and putting it on her shoulder, “so I’ll see all of you on Monday. Have a great weekend.”</p><p>Everyone just watched as she walked out the door until Flash broke the silence.</p><p>“Well, at least we’ve still got her on the team.” Everyone glared at him.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Willa was walking down the street, headphones in, trying to get home without bumping into anyone. She severely underestimated how much walking she did in a day, and she was paying the price. Thankfully she’d already finished her physical therapy for the day, so she could just lay on her bed, completely still and not have to move. Her physical therapy consisted of three things, 1) a specific leg strengthening exercise for that day of the week, 2) sparring techniques with a punching bag, and 3) meditation in her ice form for at least an hour. It was lucky that a friend of hers from Salem had moved to Midtown and opened a gym. Even luckier that said gym had a back room that she could use her powers in without sending the whole city into meltdown.</p><p>Before she could go lay down, she did have to drop off a rent check to her landlord, Mr. Sanchez. When she made it to his apartment, she’d knocked on the door 3 times and slide the check under the door, just like she always did, knowing that he’d know it was her. Before she made it very far down the hall, she heard his door open, so she stopped and turned around.</p><p>Mr. Sanchez had always been nice to Willa. She’d always been so happy that she’d ended up with him as a landlord.</p><p>“Willa, mi amiga,” he’d say every time he’d see her. Today was no different.</p><p>“Hi Mr. Sanchez. How are you doing today?”</p><p>“I’m doing swell. How are you? How are your parents?”</p><p>Willa almost did a double take, forgetting that as far as Mr. Sanchez knew, her parents were alive and well, working all the time.</p><p>“I’m doing fine and so are my parents. Thanks for asking.” She smiled. Thinking that was the end of the conversation, she turned to head to elevator until she heard him say something.</p><p>“Mi Familia just sat down to eat. Would you like to join us?”</p><p>Willa turned and smiled, feeling a little uneasy, knowing that they never eat this early.</p><p>“Mr. Sanchez, you never eat this early.”</p><p>“Ah,” Mr. Sanchez knew she’s seen right through him, “You always know. I was actually wondering if I could talk to you about something.”</p><p>Willa was curious now, wondering what he could need from her, but played along with it. “Of course, Mr. Sanchez. What can I do for you?”</p><p>He ushered her inside to his apartment, explaining that it probably wasn’t something that they should talk about in the hall. She loved the Sanchez apartment. Lots of family photos everywhere, and the best smelling food. It was something that she had always wanted in a place that she lived, but it was hard because if someone broke into her apartment, she didn’t want anyone to know that Mia was there. An encrypted folder with all her pictures would have to do for now.</p><p>She said hello to the kids, Maria and Santiago, and to Mrs. Sanchez before she found herself standing in Mr. Sanchez’s office, and he shut the door behind her.</p><p>“Willa,” he started, “you are friends with the Parkers, the people who live across the hall from you, yes?”</p><p>Seeing as she was talking to the landlord, she figured he wasn’t asking about Peter.</p><p>“Yeah,” she started, “I’m friends with May. Why are you asking?”</p><p>“Well, Mrs. Parker is a few months behind with her rent, and before I talked to her, I was wondering if there was something going on that she wouldn’t be able to catch up by now.”</p><p>Willa didn’t know that May was behind. Honestly, since Peter and her had their fight, she hadn’t talked to May at all. That and the fact she was gone all summer, she didn’t have a clue why May wouldn’t be able to pay rent.</p><p>“I know it is unfair of me to ask you that, but Mrs. Parker has always been a good tenant, and I don’t want to have to evict her and her nephew, but if she can’t pay it all by next month, I will have to give her an eviction notice.”</p><p>“Mr. Sanchez, you can’t do that. That apartment is their home.” Willa didn’t know what to do. Even if her and Peter weren’t getting along, it doesn’t mean that she wished for them to be put out on the street.</p><p>“There is nothing that I can do unless it is paid.”</p><p>Adding another thing to the list of things that people don’t know about Willa: She is <em>loaded.</em> When her parents died, it specifically stated in their will that if something were to happen, everything they had was to go to Willa Mae Miller-Stryker, and the manager of their estate was to be their friend, Brian Sellars. Brian had been friends with Ella and Bennett since they were in college. When Ella and Bennett started MSE, they couldn’t think of a better person to bring on with them than Brian, as he was brilliant on the business side of things. In fact, they were such good friends that they wanted him to take care of Willa if something happened.</p><p>However, the Strykers hadn’t gotten a chance to add that last thing to their will before they died, which means that the closest living relative retained custody. However, that still meant that what Willa got from her parents was controlled by him. It was a good thing too, because otherwise her grandparents would’ve taken that from her too.</p><p>Chelsea knew all of that, so when Willa was brought into Mutant Memorial after being found on the side of the road, she knew that Brian needed to know that she was okay. When he found out, he wanted to get custody of her, but Chelsea told him that that was a bad idea. If he brought it up, she would have to go into foster care first before he could file for custody, and by the time his request went through, she would have disappeared.</p><p>Knowing that Chelsea was right, he made sure that Willa got whatever she needed, and he did it with what was left to her by her parents. He even used that money to make smart business moves, investing it and making sure that she, under his name, of course, owned the controlling interest of the company. There was even a stipulation of the will that Willa got 5% of the company’s earning every year until she turned 18. He decided that portion he would set aside from his own salary so no one would ask why he was setting aside money for someone who is presumed dead.</p><p>When she moved to New York, Chelsea finally introduced the two of them, and he made sure that Willa knew that if she ever needed anything, to give him a call. Right around the time Mia moved in, he even got her access to the account where all her assets were stored away. That way, she could use that money to pay rent and get whatever else she needed on her own instead of calling him every time rent was due, which was great timing for Willa. After all, she had way more money than she knew what to do with. Mia had questioned where she got the money a few times as she knew that Willa didn’t have any family. Willa always dismissed it.</p><p>“You said they owed 3 months, right Mr. Sanchez?” Willa started doing the calculations in her head.</p><p>“Yes,” he replied, “about to be 4 months. Why are you asking me? You aren’t asking because you want to pay, are you?”</p><p>“Actually, I am. My parents can pay it. May hasn’t said anything about not being able to pay, but she probably wouldn’t tell me even if she was having problems. She’d tell me that it isn’t for me to worry about.”</p><p>Mr. Sanchez was speechless. Here was this girl, barely 15 years old, offering to pay almost $8,000, so he wouldn’t evict the Parkers.</p><p>“Willa, I can’t let you do that. That is a lot of money you’re talking about and—"</p><p>“I know it is,” she interrupted, “but I can pay it. My parents are always willing to help May. If May really has that much going on, she shouldn’t have to worry about this too. I promise that I’ll have it all to you by Monday.”</p><p>While Mr. Sanchez was a little concerned, she had never given him a reason to doubt her, so he didn’t.</p><p>“Alright Willa, Monday then.” He gave her a hug, which she tried very hard not to wince at the pressure put on her back. “You are a very good person. Did you know that?”</p><p>She smiled and stood to go. “Well, people keep telling me so. I think that that is just what you should do. Look out for the people you care about.”</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>After getting questioned by Mia about why she was late, Willa finally got to lay down, and she couldn’t have been more thankful for it if she wanted to be. She felt the tension leaving the muscles in her back, and Willa finally felt like she could relax. It was the first time since she got back that she felt like she could truly relax.</p><p>Mia had made dinner and so she brought it into Willa’s room and they just talked. Willa told her about her day, including how Peter quit the Academic Decathlon team and how Liz grilled her today at practice. Mia, being just as hardheaded as Steve, decided that this was the time to ask about what happened between the teens, and see what Willa would try and make up.</p><p>“Willa, what happened with Peter?” Mia questioned, “I thought you said you talked to him.”</p><p>“Well,” Willa took a breath, “I did talk to him. He just decided to not give me a chance to explain myself and slammed the door in my face. And I decided that that was a conversation you shouldn’t just text about. He seems to really want nothing to do with me, so I haven’t pushed it because if he really wanted to know what was up, he would’ve let me talk to him about it. Plus, he seems to be good friends with Ned now, so whatever, I guess.”</p><p>Mia sat there, surprised at what she just heard. “You just word-vomited.”</p><p>“So?”</p><p>“You don’t ever ‘word vomit,’ Willa. Not once since I’ve known you have you ever not thought about what you want to say.”</p><p>“I guess I figured I’d try something new, and, well, you’re my family. You and my mom are a lot alike. Minus the powers and the having to hide from spies and stuff. You’d have been great friends, and I’m glad that you’re around.”</p><p>Mia didn’t know what to say. She knew that she meant a lot to Willa. Mia saw Willa as a daughter and would’ve done everything she could to get legal custody of her if they weren’t in the situation they were, but Mia never thought that Willa would ever compare her to her mother.</p><p>“I’m honored, and touched, that you think of me that way, Willa,” She started, turning to face the girl that had come to mean so much more to her than just a little girl she lived across the hall from, “You should never have to shy away from your feelings, and I’m glad that you felt comfortable enough with me to share them. I know I’m not your mom, but you are as much of a daughter to me as Christina is, and I will never stop looking out for you. I hope you know that.”</p><p>So, there they sat, a mutant and an Avenger, just enjoying their company, not needing to speak about it, reveling in the fact that they both finally had what they needed, a family.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Not long after Mia decided to go to bed, Willa sat, working on her homework, knowing she didn’t want to wait until Sunday to start it. While she was working, she heard a knock on the door, and went to get it so that Mia could sleep. After all, Mia would be up in a few hours with Christina anyways. She needed her sleep.</p><p>When she opened the door, she didn’t expect to see May there, especially not with Peter.</p><p>“Hi Willa. I was just wondering if you needed a ride to the party too?” May asked her, though it hadn’t registered in her head quite yet that Mia wasn’t dressed for a party.</p><p>Peter just looked like he could care less that Willa still lived across the hall, choosing to play on his phone instead.</p><p>“Um, I didn’t know there was a party, and even then, I’m not really the party type, but thanks for checking Aunt May,” Willa just stood there waiting for May to excuse herself.</p><p>Eventually she did with a clipped “bye” from Peter, and Aunt May most definitely noticed, but decided this wasn’t the time to bring it up, knowing she also still had to pick up Ned.</p><p>Willa shut the door and walked back to her room, deciding that she really didn’t feel like doing her homework anymore. She grabbed her projector and see it up, so that way she could watch a movie projected on the ceiling instead of staying sitting up. It had been a while since she’d done it. In fact, the last time she’d used her projector, she’d watched <em>Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope</em> with Peter.</p><p>As she slid <em>Robin Hood, </em>a favorite of hers, into the DVD Player, Willa decided she was done being sorry that Peter decided he didn’t want to be her friend anymore. She was an independent woman who didn’t need him. She would be just fine on her own, though she wasn’t quite sure how long that attitude would last.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The Point of a Video Call is to Talk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Walking down the street after physical therapy, just as she always did, Willa couldn’t help but feel sad when she passed her favorite sandwich shop. A few days ago, a corner sandwich shop owned by a man named Mr. Delmar was reduced to ash with some sort of weapon while Spider-Man tried to stop a bank robbery across the intersection. Mr. Delmar was alright, thanks to Spider-Man, but she knew that he didn’t have the money to repair it. It was a scary thing to see on the news, and Willa decided that she could help.</p><p>She wanted to give a donation to Mr. Delmar for his shop, so when she called Brian with the idea, he immediately said that he would help her set up the fund anonymously so that no one could tie it to her, him, or MSE.</p><p>When Mr. Delmar saw her, he stopped her saying, “Willa, I haven’t seen you in quite a while, my friend. How have you been?”</p><p>“I’ve been doing just fine, Mr. Delmar,” looking behind him at his shop, Willa continued, "I’m sorry about your shop. I saw it on the news.”</p><p>He smiled at her, and unbeknownst to him, she knew why. “Oh, don’t worry. No one was hurt, thanks to that Spider-Man, and today I found out that someone has donated enough money and more to help fix the shop.”</p><p>“That is awesome Mr. Delmar. I’m so happy for you!” She gave him a hug, happy to know that she had helped someone, even if they didn’t know it.</p><p>She said her goodbyes to Mr. Delmar and continued walking down another few blocks until she got back to her apartment building. As she entered, she heard a loud <em>clang, </em>and turned to head to the elevator, finding Mr. Sanchez sitting there with a toolbox, looking very frustrated.</p><p>“Mr. Sanchez, what are you doing?”</p><p>He jumped, not realizing that anyone had walked up behind him, but smiled at Willa none the less.</p><p>“Well,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “One of the buttons stopped working and I thought that I could fix it, but as it turns out I know nothing about elevators.”</p><p>Willa just chuckled at him. “Do you mind if I take a look?”</p><p>He stepped back to let Willa do her thing, and in fact, Willa knew exactly how to fix it, and Mr. Sanchez was more than pleased.</p><p>“Thank you, Willa. You are just full of surprises.”</p><p>“It isn’t a problem Mr. Sanchez. Have a great rest of your day,” Willa told him and turned to head up the stairs. She decided to take it a little easier with her physical therapy today so take the stairs instead of the elevator. She lives on the 5<sup>th</sup> floor, so she wanted to see how far she could get.</p><p>Though it took her a significant time longer to make it up the five flights of stairs, she did make it, and she was quite proud of herself for it. It was shaping up to be a great week for her, and she knew that tonight would make it even better.</p><p>A few days prior, Shuri had messaged Willa through a secure connection that the two had set up that they had “fixed” Bucky and he was out of Cryo and trying to live a somewhat normal life. The two then hatched a plan to set up a video call for the two 100-year-old lovebirds, who hadn’t seen each other in a long time.</p><p>Neither Bucky nor Mia knew about it, so all they had to do was get each of them in front of a computer at the designated time. The problem was when they first thought of this idea, neither of them considered the time difference between Midtown and Wakanda. After talking it through, they found that there was a 7-hour difference, and that it would be easier if Bucky was on the call during the middle of the night. That way, he would have time alone without anyone snooping on him.</p><p>Willa was supposed to have Mia in front of her computer at 4 PM. Lately, Chris had been giving Mia a hard time, all the time. Not that she couldn’t go outside, but it was hard to do anything with a toddler, and today especially, it wasn’t worth the struggle to go out and do anything. Willa could tell that Mia was having a hard time and knew that this call would be just the thing to cheer her up. She had just sat down on the couch when Willa had walked through the door.</p><p>“Hey sweetheart. How was your physical therapy?” She asked, trying her best not to yawn through the question.</p><p>“It was great, actually. Today was the first day that I didn’t feel myself falling into a panic when I turned myself to ice. I even meditated a little longer because of it. And, I walked all the way up the stairs today.” Willa said, doing a sort of little jig, feeling excited. She was very proud of that fact. It had been a long time since she’d been able to make it up one flight of stairs, let alone five.</p><p>“That is awesome Willa. I’m so proud of you. You’ve some such a long way,” Mia commented, yawning her way through it.</p><p>Willa checked her watch. 3:57 PM. <em>I’ve got to get her in front of my computer.</em></p><p>“Hey Mia. I need to show you something,” Mia began to protest, but Willa insisted, “Come on.”</p><p>Willa walked quickly to her room, not even taking the time to set her bag down, which Mia found odd, and started typing a series of commands on the computer while telling Mia to have a seat. Willa typed a few more lines on her computer before a new window popped up, this one containing the live video feed of James Buchannan Barnes.</p><p>Backing up, so that way he could see the both of them, she teased, “Hey Serge. How’ve you been?” She figured that he wouldn’t hear her question because Bucky and Mia were just staring at each other, like they couldn’t believe each other was real.</p><p>Willa heard from the other side of the screen, “The point of a video call is to talk, you know!”</p><p>Mia couldn’t put a face to the voice, and Bucky let out a small chuckle, noticing the confused look on Mia’s face.</p><p>Willa smiled and shook her head at her friend and yelled back, “These old people haven’t grasped the concept yet, Shuri! Give ‘em time!”</p><p>Willa turned around to look at Mia and whispered, “Have fun,” wiggling her eyebrows.</p><p>Mia whacked her on the arm as she walked out and fixed her eyes back on Bucky.</p><p>“It’s you,” Mia whispered, “You’re okay.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’m okay.” Bucky smiled. One that he hasn’t had in a long time.</p><p>Willa decided it would be best to just leave them to talk, because she didn’t know the next time that they would be able to talk to each other. She walked back to the living room, started a movie and got out her homework.</p><p>“<em>101 Dalmatians</em>,” she whispered to herself, “What a classic.” It had been her most favorite movie of all time, and nothing thus far had topped it.</p><p>She decided to start with her history, knowing that it would be the easiest. They had to write a paper on the history of an oppressed group of people, and she, of course, chose to write about the mutants and how they’ve been treated throughout history. It was a walk in the park to her, seeing as she was taught all of this at a very young age and kept up with it as it directly related to her. She didn’t know what her teacher thought about mutants, but she was going to write about it as though she was trying to change the mind of someone that didn’t understand what they faced throughout history.</p><p>After <em>101 Dalmatians</em> finished, she decided to turn on a different movie since she could still hear Bucky and Mia talking. She was glad that she was able to help fix that relationship. <em>Maybe one day I can convince Shuri and T’Challa to let Mia and Chris visit. Bucky should get the chance to meet his daughter in person, </em>Willa thought, smiling to herself.</p><p>As she was looking through the movies, she found her collection of the <em>Star Wars</em> movies, and it made her a little sad. Her and Peter used to have <em>Star Wars </em>marathons all the time, but she just set those aside and kept digging for what she was after. <em>The Aristocats. </em>Between <em>the Aristocats </em>and <em>101 Dalmatians</em>, Willa was set for life. Of course, there are lots of movies that are near and dear to Willa’s heart, but those two will always be the ones she loves the most.</p><p>While <em>the Aristocats</em> was playing, Willa finished her History paper. It was longer than it needed to be, though it wasn’t hard to do with the topic being the life that Willa led. She just couldn’t find anything to cut out, so that is how she left it. The movie had finished, but she decided to start it over for some noise. Also, because she loved it so much.</p><p>She moved on next to Spanish, and let her be the one to tell you, even though she speaks it fluently, trying to do Spanish while listening to a movie in English is tricky. She finished the few worksheets she had to do, and then pulled out her chemistry. She was tired, but she needed to get it done, but after the day she had, she was wiped out.</p><p>Before she knew it, she was fast asleep listening to the movie, “<em>I’m Abraham deLacy, Giuseppe Casey, Thomas O’Malley, O’Malley, the Alley Cat…”</em></p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>“C’mon Milly, it was hilarious,” Bucky grinned at the love of his life trying not to laugh.</p><p>“It wasn’t to Steve, or to me. He nearly threw up on my dress, James. You’re the one who was too scared to ride, anyways.” Mia decided that if he was going to tease her, she wouldn’t pull her punches now.</p><p>“Touché, Amelia, touché.”</p><p>They both just looked at each other. Well, Mia looked at her James. James though, he was looking behind her at the bed where his daughter lay, fast asleep. Chris had woken up some time ago, so Mia went to get her and rocked her back to sleep. Realizing that Bucky hadn’t seen her, she decided that she would put her down to sleep on Willa’s bed for the time being, so that way she would be there if Chris got fussy again.</p><p>“I almost didn’t believe it when Willa gave me that picture,” Bucky said, staring at the sleeping girl with the smallest smile on his face, “It’s been so long since we talked about anything like that. Since either of us had an option remotely close to that.”</p><p>“I know,” Mia sighed. “I, uh, I couldn’t figure out why I woke up every morning sick, and eventually it dawned on me that the medical community has gotten significantly smarter and maybe doctors in the 40’s could’ve been wrong. I took five tests, just to be sure, and every single one came back positive. At the time, I had no idea how I would get through it by myself. Neither of our lives have ever been normal, are never going to be normal, and the thought of trying to raise a kid through that seemed absolutely absurd, but I honestly wouldn’t change a thing.”</p><p>Bucky couldn’t believe how much she’d changed in the year that he hadn’t seen her. He could tell she was tired, which he was sure was a daily thing now, but she seemed to have more energy than she did before.</p><p>“You’re a good mom, Milly. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.”</p><p>“Don’t worry,” she said, “I don’t.”</p><p>Bucky took a pause, reveling in the feeling of being able to speak freely with the love of his life. Something he thought he would never get to do again. He’d had something on his mind for a while, and he figured now was as good a time as any to ask her, so he did. “Why didn’t you want anyone else to know where you are?”</p><p>Mia knew he was going to ask, and it’d been at the back of her mind since she’d started talking to him. She felt as though the reason that she had wasn’t good enough, but she’d spent her whole life doing good for others and putting herself last. Now it was time for her to think about what was good for herself, and for the girls that she would protect until she couldn’t anymore.</p><p>“When I showed up here,” Mia started, leaning back in seat, as though that would help her get the words out, “Willa did everything she could to make sure that I had what I needed. She’d run out in the middle of the night to get me pickles and make sure that I had enough to eat while she was at school, and she always managed to bring home leftovers from the neighbors she had dinner with, and then when Chris was born, she'd always make a note of what we’re running low on and stop to pick it up before I could notice we were low. Not once has she ever asked for anything in return. At some point, I realized that I have two girls to protect, not one.”</p><p>Realizing that she had started to ramble, she continued on to actually answer his question, “I guess I never left because if I left, Steve, Tony, and everyone else would’ve asked where I was. Especially when I came back with a kid. They would’ve found out that I’d been with you, which means so would the Federal Government, and if they kept digging, they would’ve found Willa, and I can’t do that to her. Willa would’ve had to disappear and forget all about the family that she has here, and I couldn’t let that happen.”</p><p>“Why would she have had to disappear?” he questioned, “I’m sure they would’ve taken her in.”</p><p>“I know that they would’ve, but Willa wasn’t altered like you or me, she was born with her powers. She’s a mutant. Mutants can’t just go anywhere they want. There is a lot of paperwork for a mutant to be put under the care of other people, and the legal guardian has to sign all of it, but Willa got left on the side of the road by her grandparents after parents died, which means she should be in foster care.”</p><p>“So?” Bucky still didn’t quite see the problem.</p><p>“So, mutants in foster care go missing, James. Willa showed me the files that she’s been keeping track of. All over the country, these kids enter the system with the same sheet on file, and they all just disappear. Never found dead. Not found alive. They are just never <em>found.</em> Since this form was created, and no one is looking for them.”</p><p>Bucky was finally starting to put the pieces together in his head when he asked Mia, “Is that why she said if she got caught, she would be ‘dead, like literally’?” using his hand to make quotes.</p><p>Mia let out a small chuckle at how Willa always managed to stay positive. <em>Of course, that’s how she phrased it. </em></p><p>“Yeah. That’s exactly it, which is why I’m most definitely going to kick Steve’s ass the next time I see him for thinking of bringing her, and Anna will kick his ass for actually doing it.”</p><p>Bucky laughed at her violent tendencies, but questioned her, “I heard him say something about an ‘Anna’, but don’t actually know who she is. Did Steve get a girlfriend?”</p><p>“He did indeed.”</p><p>They both just laughed, and that was exactly when Mia realized how late it was. Looking at the digital clock in Willa’s room, it read <em>1:12 AM.</em></p><p>“Jesus, it is 1 AM. We’ve been talking for a long time.”</p><p>“That we have doll, but it has been quite a long time since we had an actual, normal conversation.”</p><p>It fell silent, both knowing they had to go, but not wanting to be apart.</p><p>“I should go and check on Willa. Make sure she’s doing alright.”</p><p>He nodded his head, “I’m sure the Princess will be in here any minute, telling me she needs her lab back.”</p><p>They both paused for a moment, not sure when they’ll get to talk again.</p><p>“I’ll miss you, Milly.”</p><p>“I’ll miss you too, James. Sweet dreams. Do try and get some sleep. Enjoying having peace in your daily life. It’s nice.”</p><p>“I will, Milly. Sweet dreams.”</p><p>And with that, he disappeared from the screen, and Mia found herself staring at her reflection in the black screen. She saw the bags under her eyes, and her disheveled hair, but what caught her attention was how she looked happier, in that moment. Happier than she’d been in a very long time.</p><p>She picked Chris up, carefully so that she didn’t wake her, and put her back in her crib, and then she went to check on Willa. She found Willa fast asleep on the couch, with the TV sitting on the title screen for <em>The Aristocats, </em>a movie that Mia had quite come to love living with the teen. With papers all over and a textbook laying across her lap, Mia realized just how much she owed to Willa Miller. She owed Willa her life, and her daughter’s, because there is no way she would’ve made it through giving birth on her own, and even if she had, there was no way she wouldn’t have been found while trying to care for her new baby. And to top it all off, Willa managed to find, and help free, so to speak, the love of her life.</p><p>In her conversation, she’d even learned new things about Willa, which gave her so much respect for the girl. Bucky explained to her that at the airport, when he saw her, he knew who she was, because he was the one who killed her parents.</p><p>At that, Mia was stunned. She had no idea what to think. The respect blossomed from the response Willa gave him.</p><p>“<em>But you should know that I don’t blame you for what happened.</em>”</p><p>But Willa should’ve. She’s been 15 for a month. She should’ve had some sort of resentment for the guy who set her life on a path of getting shuffled around and around until she ends up completely on her own. She should hate the man that killed her parents. Any normal human would.</p><p>But she didn’t hate him. Willa didn’t hate that he is the reason she was screwed over with every card life dealt her, and Mia can’t understand why. And that was why Willa was amazing. Mia collected all the papers and put them in a pile on the coffee table, took the book from Willa’s lap and put in back in her bag, shut off the TV, and covered her with a blanket.</p><p>Mia knew the girl was running herself into the ground, and decided that tomorrow, Willa wasn’t going to school. She’d done so much for Mia; the least Mia could do would be to let Willa sleep in for at least one day in her life.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>When Willa woke, she couldn’t figure out why she was on the couch. All her stuff was in a nice neat pile, just like Willa liked it, but Willa was good about being on time, every time. Then it dawned on her that it was 10 AM, and she was still on her couch, in the clothes she had on yesterday.</p><p>Before she could panic, she noticed a sticky note on her pile of papers. Willa never used sticky notes to sort papers, so she grabbed it.</p><p>It read:</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Went out with May today. I have Chris with me, and I called Ms. B in the office and told her you wouldn’t be in for school but would be there in time for Decathlon practice. See you later.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Love,</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Mia</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Willa smiled, that those few extra hours of sleep is what she needed to be able to function again without constantly drinking coffee. She stood up, flooding up the blanket neatly, and went to get dressed for physical therapy. Since she had the day off, she decided to go do that before going to Academic Decathlon. That way, she would have all night to do homework and lay around doing nothing.</p><p>She took her time getting to the gym, and when she walked in, she said hi to Tim, as always, and made her way to the back of the gym, to her little private space. It wasn’t much, only having a few sets of weights and a punching bag, but it served its purpose.</p><p>She did her stretching before beginning her leg exercise for the day, Wednesday; The Squat-Heel Raise. Each one consisted of performing a squat but then when standing up, you would stand up on your toes and then back down into a squat to repeat the process. Willa didn’t care for this one very much, as she didn’t care for squats at all, but it was on the list that Chelsea gave her, and she wanted to get better, so she’d have to suck it up.</p><p>She did those with 10 repetitions in each set, taking a break in between each set, but she could tell that her legs were getting a lot stronger. She’d ended up throughout the first 45 minutes doing 9 sets, and her legs were starting to feel tired, but she moved onto her sparring techniques. It wasn’t so much sparring as it was boxing with a punching bag, but for now, it was what she had to use. As much as she didn’t like violence, her fighting was something that had been instilled in her from a young age.</p><p>Every mutant when they are brought to the School for the Gifted, which is run by Professor Charles Xavier, is taught how to fight, no matter the age. Anna was the one to begin her training, and Willa was a natural. By the time that Willa was 8, if it weren’t the fact that Willa was still half the size of Anna, she would’ve won every fight, and everyone in the School knew it. She liked the repetitiveness of it, and since she’d been doing it for so long, she didn’t need to think about it. It gave her time to think and unwind.</p><p>Then came the last part: the meditation. It wasn’t that Willa didn’t like the meditation. It was that she would relax enough and her brain would go into this sort of memory rewind, and the last monumental thing she did in her ice form was get hit in the back by a laser, and that was something she just wanted to forget.</p><p>Willa has always had a hard time forgetting things. Whether it has to do with bad memories or when her next Spanish Quiz was, it didn’t matter. Willa never really forgot. Today though, Willa decided to try something different. A few days prior, she’d decided to reread the <em>Harry Potter </em>series for the, probably, 100<sup>th</sup> time since Chelsea had gifted them to her for her birthday, and when she got to the end of <em>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, </em>she’d read something that she had forgotten completely about.</p><p>At the end of the year banquet, Dumbledore had said, “’<em>It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.</em>’”</p><p>Though that day at the airport, Willa hadn’t properly met and known all of them, her agreeing to go was part wanting to protect the family she had, but also wanting to stand up for what she believes. She doesn’t think, nor will she ever think, that the Accords in the form they are in is a good idea, and she is one of the few people in the world who could do what she did to say so.</p><p>She sat down, folding her legs, and closed her eyes. She slowed her breathing, and slowly let her whole body turn to ice. She could feel the panic coming, but as she sat there in silence, what she realized is that each and every thing that has happened to her throughout her life, for better or for worse, was for a reason and it helped make her who she is growing up to be. Being 15 is hard. Having a best friend who wants nothing to do with you is hard. Having to hide your true identity from everyone is hard. But she’d made it through it all, and that is when she realized how strong she truly was. She’d lost a lot in her life, but she’d gained a lot too, and she took it for granted sometimes.</p><p>Before she knew it, her timer for her hour had went off, and she hadn’t thought it been more than 15 minutes. Willa found confidence in herself that day, confidence in what she does and who she truly is, and she didn’t care if the people in her life didn’t want to know her, she’d be better than that. It was truly and seriously, in that moment, that Willa decided that Peter Parker wouldn’t take anything else from her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Protesting is Patriotic</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was time for the Academic Decathlon trip, and Willa couldn’t have been more excited. The National Championship was being hosted in Washington D.C. this year. The last time she was in Washington D.C. was when the Triskelion fell because Steve and Mia exposed HYDRA to the world. When that happened, the government started looking a little closer at the city, specifically where Steve and Mia had been living, and since Willa had been living with Anna at the time, Anna decided to have her move up to New York with Steve and Mia so if they started looking a little harder at Anna, she wouldn’t be in danger, knowing that not just Willa, but every other Mutant that Anna had helped would be found out. That was how Willa ended up in Queens, and though it was a few rough years, she’s quite happy where she is.</p><p>Mr. Harrington was talking through the plan with the bus driver while everyone else on the team was waiting outside of the bus, sharing their excitement for the trip. Mr. Harrington had given the signal for everyone to board the bus when they turned to find Peter running over.</p><p>“Peter?” Liz asks, not really believing that he is right there. In fact, everyone was having a hard time believing it. Everyone except for Willa.</p><p>“Yeah,” Peter said, trying not to sound desperate, “I was hoping I could rejoin the team.”</p><p>Before anyone could say anything, Flash is right up in his face, “No. No way. You can’t just quit on us, stroll up, and be welcomed back by everyone.”</p><p>Mr. Harrington seemed very excited to see Peter standing there, knowing now they might have a shot.</p><p>“Hey, welcome back Peter,” then turning to Flash, “Flash, you’re back to first alternate.”</p><p>Willa wanted to be mad at what was happening right then but kept herself from doing so. She, herself, wasn’t going to do anything that would jeopardize this trip.</p><p>Flash was just beside himself, and she could hear another kid, Abe, teasing him about losing his spot to Peter.</p><p>Willa was about to speak up about making sure they left on time to get there, but Michelle had beat her too it, though it wasn’t because she wanted to get there for the Decathlon.</p><p>“Excuse me, can we go already?” Being her friend, Willa could tell that she was annoyed with the situation. “’Cause I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of the embassies before dinner, so...”</p><p>Willa smiled at her friend, knowing that this was why she liked her so much. Michelle never cared what other people thought of her, and she would speak her mind about any issue. Mr. Harrington though, wasn’t quite sure what to think of that statement.</p><p>Thinking about it a little longer, he said, “Protesting is Patriotic. Everybody on the bus.”</p><p>And just like that, they were off.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Willa had never much cared for bus rides. She much preferred trains. She always got sick if she didn’t look out the windows, and Mr. Harrington having been on a few trips before with Willa, let her sit up in the front so that she could see out both the windshield and the windows and listen to her music.</p><p>Liz seemed irritated by that fact, because she wanted Willa to be at the top of her game, not because she liked her, but because Liz wanted to win, and Willa didn’t bat an eyelash at it. Willa could still hear questions being asked and quizzed herself instead.</p><p>One question. <em>The Second law of Thermodynamics.</em></p><p>A second later, she heard Cindy ring her bell, shouting “The Second Law of Thermodynamics.”</p><p>Another question. <em>Frank Sinatra.</em></p><p>A second later, another member named Charles rang his bell and yelled “Frank Sinatra.”</p><p>That was what the bus ride consisted off. Willa thinking the answers to herself while everyone else voiced them.</p><p>She eventually decided to put her other earbud back in to drown out the questions, because her head was beginning to hurt with all the bell ringing on the bus.</p><p>
  <em>The world turned upside down, the world turned upside down, down, down, down, down</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Freedom for America--</em>
</p><p>She felt a tap on her shoulder and jumped, pulling out an earbud, not expecting anyone to bother her until she got there. To say she was surprised that it was Peter who tapped on her shoulder would be an understatement.</p><p>“Hey. Are you doing okay? I remember how riding the bus always made you feel sick.”</p><p>“Yeah. I’m good.” Willa stared a moment at him, trying to figure out what his game was. Then, she turned around and put her earbud back in, not wanting to hear anything else Peter had to say. After all, he was the one that yelled at her. That was the way that Willa spent the rest of the ride, listening to <em>Hamilton</em> and not having a care about Peter in the world.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Willa would never get tired of the architecture in the country’s capital. The hotel they were staying at?</p><p>Absolutely stunning.</p><p>It had the very open concept lobby, but the rooms were built up around it, making it feel like it was outside. She saw a sign hanging from one of the floors welcoming all the Academic Decathlon teams, and she really couldn’t have been more excited. Mr. Harrington signed all of them in and started handing out room keys, doing the boys first and then the girls.</p><p>Mr. Harrington handed Willa’s key out last as she was the odd girl out.</p><p>“Here is your key, Willa. Don’t forget were doing dinner at 5:30.”</p><p>“I won’t. Thanks Mr. Harrington.”</p><p>Unlike everyone else who wanted to go exploring after they’d settled in; Willa didn’t really feel like going anywhere. She had already done her physical therapy for the day, the actual exercises, but sitting for 4 hours on a bus didn’t really do anything but make her back tense up. She just needed to stretch it out.</p><p>A few people noticed that Willa had gotten a room to herself and started to complain to Mr. Harrington about it, saying that it wasn’t fair that she got special treatment. Mr. Harrington wasn’t quite sure of the exact reason, as she had worked it out with the office, and Willa wasn’t exactly sure what Chelsea had given Ms. B in the office. All that Mr. Harrington knew was that Willa had a doctor’s note and had worked everything out with the office. Willa decided that that was her time to make her escape.</p><p>Peter didn’t really want to give up on that detail. He heard Mr. Harrington talking about Willa having a doctor’s note, and he wanted to know why that was. He’d thought about asking Willa, but knew she wouldn’t tell him, and neither would Michelle. Everyone else had moved on by then, finding their own things to do, and Willa laid in her room on her bed, holding <em>Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets </em>above her head so she could read while she stretched her back out.</p><p>She’d been reading for about 20 minutes until she realized that she never texted Mia and Chelsea letting them know that they had made it to Washington D.C. alright. She quickly sent those texts and continued reading her book. About an hour later, she heard someone knocking on her door, saying that it was time for dinner, so she headed down to the hotel’s dining room with Michelle to find a seat.</p><p>Michelle and Willa became friends slowly over the years, bonding over the fact that they both enjoy observing other people. They listened to the conversations going on between their classmates and heard some others from some different teams. Eventually, Michelle decided to tell Willa about her protesting adventure, though if Willa were to be honest, she didn’t really hear much of what Michelle was saying because she was exhausted. The night before had been one of the bad nights. Her back had cramped, and then Chris wouldn’t go to sleep. Once Mia got her to sleep, she didn’t stay asleep for very long, and then, because it was just a <em>fantastic </em>idea, when they arrived at the hotel, Willa decided to lay on her bed and read for an hour. To be quite honest, Willa was surprised that she’d managed to make it to dinner without falling asleep.</p><p>When everyone finished and went their separate ways, Willa decided that she would meditate for a while. She’d gotten a late start getting to physical therapy and hadn’t had time to do her meditation for the day, and she figured that now was as good a time as any, and it would help wind her mind down to get a restful night. Before she could start though, she heard a knock on the door.</p><p>Standing up, she opened the door to find Liz standing there in her swimming suit.</p><p>“Hey Willa,” Liz paused to clear her throat, “I know that we’ve been butting heads a lot lately, but some of us are going swimming to relax. Do you want to come?”</p><p>“Um,” Willa noticed a few others standing behind Liz, waiting to get going, “I don’t really like swimming. I didn’t even bring my suit, but thanks for asking, Liz. I appreciate it.”</p><p>Liz nodded in understanding and walked off, the others following, and Willa shut the door. It was a lie that Willa didn’t like swimming, she liked it just fine, but it wasn’t a lie that Willa hadn’t brought her swimming suit.</p><p>The real reason was that Willa hadn’t gone swimming since what happened in Germany, and she didn’t want anyone to stare at her new scar. She had a giant white scar there now, and it bubbled out like a lightning bolt would in the sky, with one main line with many branching from it. It was quite the contrast to her dark skin, and she didn’t care to look at it very much. Though it was a reminder of the protection that she gave to get it, it was also a reminder of her pure stupidity.</p><p><em>Oh well. We have to live with the choices we’ve made, </em>she thought, <em>and mine, right now, is to go to bed.</em></p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Willa woke up to some frantic shouting, so she quickly got dressed and opened her door to find everyone freaking out.</p><p>No one noticed her, so she, against her better judgement, decided to voice her concerns, “What is going on?”</p><p>Everyone turned to Willa, and Liz was fuming.</p><p>“Willa,” she all but shouted, getting in Willa’s face, “Where is Peter?”</p><p>“Um, what?” Willa was confused why she was asking her.</p><p>“Willa, where is Peter Parker?” Liz repeated.</p><p>“Why would I know?” Willa asked, still confused.</p><p>Liz rolled her eyes, beginning to think less and less of Willa, “Because you’re his best friend, Willa. I couldn’t think of anyone else who could possibly know.”</p><p>Mr. Harrington wanted to stop the girls from fighting, especially since the competition was in an hour, but when he saw Willa’s eyes narrow and her shoulders square, he decided he knew better than to get in between the two. Willa moved to stand just as tall as Liz, so she could look her right in the eye, to help get her point across.</p><p>“Then you should open your eyes a little wider, <em>Elizabeth</em>. Peter and I haven’t had a proper conversation since before the end of last school year, like I told you the day that he quit the team. Since it seems that you like him so much, why don’t we just agree to make it your job to keep track of him?”</p><p>Everyone was stunned. Even a few people from other teams were stunned. This quiet little girl, deciding to embrace her inner badger (yes, she self identifies as a Hufflepuff, don’t judge) and speak her mind.</p><p>After that, everyone seemed to move on so that they could prepare for the competition, and Peter was still nowhere to be found. As they were signing into the competition, Willa didn’t miss the look of guilt that crossed Ned’s face.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>After all their hard work, scribbling their pencils and trying to come up with the answers as fast as they could. In the end, they had tied with another team, and Midtown went to Sudden Death.</p><p>Everyone was so on edge; you could’ve cut the tension of the room with a knife.</p><p>The moderator stood in front of the two teams, saying that whichever team answered the next question correctly won the championship. She asked the question, and Michelle rang the buzzer right away. Everyone turned to look at Michelle, surprised that she hit the buzzer.</p><p>With her normal, impassive face, she said “Zero.”</p><p>The moderator smiled, saying “That is correct. Midtown takes the championship!”</p><p>Everyone was overjoyed, especially Willa. Willa gave Michelle a giant hug, and Michelle gave her a genuine smile back, and everyone else piled in for a group hug. She knew that even though Michelle didn’t show her feelings, didn’t mean she didn’t want friends.</p><p>The team decided to celebrate by going sight-seeing, and right across the street from their hotel was the Washington Monument. Willa didn’t really care to listen to her classmates’ conversations, as she was pretty sure that they were all a little scared to say anything to her since her outburst that morning. She did notice that Michelle had stopped walking towards the monument and so Mr. Harrington stopped to talk to her.</p><p>“Taking it all in, Michelle?” He asked.</p><p>“Oh, yeah,” she started, feeling a little awkward, “I just, um, I don’t want to celebrate something that was built by slaves.”</p><p>“Oh, I’m sure the Washington Monument wasn’t built by--” Mr. Harrington turned to see Willa standing there, shaking her hand to signal that the Washington Monument was, in fact, built by slaves.</p><p>“Okay,” he paused, “Enjoy your book.”</p><p>“Thanks.” Michelle went to find a seat where she could wait for them to come back down.</p><p>“Hey MJ. You sure you don’t want some company?” Willa didn’t want her to sit there all by herself.</p><p>Michelle shook her head. “You go, Wil. I know how much you wanted to go up there, to reminisce and such. I’m good down here.”</p><p>“Alright.”</p><p>So, Willa turned to jog, which was very hard to do, so she could catch up with everyone else. After making their way through security, they all got onto the elevator where their tour guide began giving them facts about the Washington Monument.</p><p>“The Washington Monument is 555’ and 5 1/8” tall. Notice how the marble and granite are cut,” but Willa wasn’t really listening anymore, more focused on Ned in front of her, more specifically, his glowing backpack. Before she could say anything, his backpack exploded, sending a beam of energy up into the ceiling and sending Willa slamming straight back into the wall of the elevator, hitting both her head and her back.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Panic Mode</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Willa’s vision refocused, she wasn’t feeling very reassured. The tour guide and the park ranger kept saying that the safety measures were working, though the way she felt the elevator shifting, she knew better than to think that was true. To make matters worse, Willa felt her legs start to tingle, and at that point she realized just how hard she had hit the wall.</p><p>Looking down at her legs, she was a little relieved that no part of her jeans had ripped, which made her icing up a little less stressful, and would strengthen her legs. The reason that the ice helped was that it strengthened the connection of the spinal cord to the nerves in her leg, which made the signals travel like they are supposed to, like she hadn’t been injured in the first place. Her ice always healed quicker than her actual body.</p><p>Willa realized that no one in the elevator had been prepared for a situation like this, except for her, and she would make sure that everyone in that elevator got out before something bad happened.</p><p>“Okay Cindy, you’re out first.” Willa knew, from speaking to her on a few different occasions, that the girl was claustrophobic, and the less people they had freaking out in the elevator, the better.</p><p>“Willa, I can’t--” Cindy started, frantically shaking her head.</p><p>“You can,” Willa squatted down a little, linking her fingers together to make a step to help lift her out, “it’ll be just fine. Just take a breath, step, I’ll help lift you up, and that park ranger will pull you out and get you to the top. Simple as that.”</p><p>Cindy looked skeptical at how Willa worded it, but Willa kept her ground, giving her another reassuring nod. So, Cindy did exactly that. Willa kept giving her encouragement as she helped Cindy out of the elevator, and everyone was impressed with how Willa had handled that situation. As soon as Willa saw that Cindy was all the way to the top, she turned to everyone else.</p><p>“Who’s next?”</p><p>After few moments, Abe decided that he would go next, and then Charles after. The park rangers at the top decided that it would be best to get the tour guide out next so that they could be at the top with all of the students, so Willa helped them out next, knowing it was crucial to keep everyone calm. Liz was next, but she hesitated for a moment, remembering the conversation that the two girls had had earlier.</p><p>Willa shook her head, noticing Liz’s hesitation to let her help, “Look Liz, we’re teenagers and we’re about to fall to our deaths. We can continue being petty later.”</p><p>Willa had noticed the elevator had started shaking a little more, so she tried with all her might to freeze it in place without giving herself away as a powered person. The problem was keeping her hair dark. It was hard for her to do, especially since she hasn’t had to focus on more than one aspect of her powers since she the accident. Her hair was usually the easiest to control, but since she was focusing on not letting the elevator fall and keeping herself upright, the last thing on her mind was her hair color.</p><p>So, when Flash shoved his way to get out of the elevator next, the trophy he was holding tapped her back. And that was all that it took to distract her from holding the elevator in place with her ice. She could hear her other classmates saying something to Flash, but that wasn’t what she was focused on. She was focused on lifting him out of the elevator, but he wasn’t climbing out.</p><p>“Flash, move your ass out of this elevator,” she said angerly, gritting her teeth, the strength of her ice slowly deteriorating. Hearing Willa’s tone, Flash finally began to climb out. Mr. Harrington was about to reprimand her for her language but decided that the circumstances called for it. As soon as Flash was out, Willa felt the elevator jolt, and then it dropped.</p><p>Everyone screamed. Willa, Mr. Harrington, and Ned couldn’t do much more than hold on the small railings in the elevator, scared for their lives, and Willa was having too many flashbacks of falling to be of any help.</p><p>
  <em>Thwip!</em>
</p><p>She felt the elevator shaft stop, and when the three of them looked up, they saw that whatever, or whoever, was holding them up come plummeting down after the elevator doors at the top of the shaft gave away from the pressure.</p><p>As the elevator fell, it got caught on a beam but when Spider-Man came crashing down, it dislodged the elevator again, sending it plummeting even further down before he shot another web at the top of the shaft, and hung upside down with his feet on the roof of the elevator, stopping it from going down even further.</p><p>“Hey, how you doing? Don’t worry about it. I got you,” he said, trying to keep everyone calm.</p><p>If this were any other time, Willa would’ve laughed at Peter’s ridiculous impression of a thick New York accent, but she was too busy panicking about the feeling of falling to care.</p><p>Ned though, he was super excited about it, waving his fist around, which made the elevator shake, saying “Yes, Yes, Yes.”</p><p>“Hey. Hey. Big Guy, quit it,” Peter reprimanded.</p><p>Ned immediately stopped, saying, “Sorry sir. So sorry,” repeatedly.</p><p>Peter slowly started pulling the elevator back to the top, and each time they inch higher, Willa starts to breathe a little easier.</p><p>
  <em>Just a little bit longer, Wil. You’re doing great.</em>
</p><p>That is what Mia would’ve said if she were there, and Willa desperately wished she was. But Mia wasn’t there, so Willa would have to be strong for a little bit longer.</p><p>Peter was focusing on pulling the elevator, but he couldn’t shake the look on Willa’s face or the sound of her scream. She was holding onto the railing for dear life, she was a lot paler, and she was so shaky, and he knew that her screams would haunt his nightmares, just like the one that he heard in Germany did. He’d never seen her so scared in her life, and he knew it was his fault. If he and Ned hadn’t tried to dig into the alien weapons, then he wouldn’t be here, and Ned wouldn’t have had the ‘glowy thing,’ as he and Ned had named it, and it wouldn’t have exploded and caused all these problems.</p><p>Peter had finally gotten the elevator to the top of the shaft, and everyone at the top had pried the doors on the elevator open, so the three of them could get out. Mr. Harrington and Ned immediately scrambled out, not wanting to be in that space anyone longer, but Willa was still weary of both the integrity of the elevator and her legs. She had been the farthest from the door, so she couldn’t rush out like Ned and Mr. Harrington had.</p><p>Peter could feel the corner of the elevator he had used for leverage starting to give away, and he needed Willa to get out. Even if she hated him for what he said, he wouldn’t let her get hurt because of something that he had cause. He shouted at her, “Go, go, go!”</p><p>Before she could take a step, the elevator dropped, and so did she.</p><p>She had decided over the summer that she hated the feeling of falling, and this time was no different. Before she could decide to scream, she stopped falling. She felt something sticky on her wrist, and when she looked up, there was Spider-Man, holding her up by a web. He started pulling her up slowly, so that the web didn’t rip, and kept repeating “You’re okay, you’re okay,” until he was able to grab her hand and help her over to the door so they could grab her and get her out of the shaft.</p><p>Willa was amazed that she could even stand there, because, to be completely honest, she was scared shitless. Absolutely shitless. But while he was hanging there, she couldn’t help but think that maybe it was for the best that he became Spider-Man. After all, he’s helping people, and that is what he always wanted to do.</p><p>And Peter? Seeing the fear in her eyes, knew that he had royally screwed up in the friend department. He knew there was something that she wasn’t telling him, but it finally made it through his head that there was something he wasn’t telling her, and if he wouldn’t have been there in time to catch her, the last thing he would’ve done as her friend would’ve been fighting with her. In that moment, he knew he had to make it up to her.</p><p>Peter glanced around, “Is everyone okay?”</p><p>Willa just nodded once, feeling as though if she moved to much, she’d tip over and if she tried to say something, she wasn’t sure that anything would come out.</p><p>Just then, the web that Peter had been hanging onto broke, and down he soared, leaving almost everyone wondering what just happened.</p><p>Flash, having other things on his mind, carefully leaned over, looking down into the shaft, and shouted, “Are you really friends with Peter Parker?” No one was impressed with that.</p><p>And Willa, she finally let the tears roll down her face.</p><p>They had to sit up there for a while, waiting for the emergency services to get them down, and they all had conversations amongst themselves, but nobody dared talk to the girl who’d done everything she could to get everyone out before her. Her teacher and all but two of her classmates, Peter and Michelle, owed their lives to Willa Miller, and no one knew what to say. It had been a silent agreement between all of them that they should give her space.</p><p>She sat with her head on her knees, all curled up, so that no one could see her face twisted up in pain. She was covered in dust and debris from when the elevator first shook from the blast, and all she wanted was a shower and her own bed. She had half a mind to call Chelsea to come to D.C. and pick her up posing as her cousin, but she knew too many questions would be asked if she did. Her back hurt, and there was no position that she could be in that would relieve the pressure building up. When she heard the blades of a helicopter outside, she looked up, relieved that she could get out of that hell hole.</p><p>Mr. Harrington made sure that Willa was in the first group to go down, because after all she did, she deserved it. After a few trips up and down, everyone from up on the monument was safely on the ground, and when Michelle saw Willa, she gave her as big a hug as she could muster, knowing the girl needed familiarity, and Willa cried into her shoulder. Michelle also knew that, even though Willa would never admit it out loud, she wanted Peter. She wanted her friend that has been there since she moved, and Michelle was angry at Peter that he was stupid enough to let this girl in front of her go.</p><p>As soon as everyone was down, Mr. Harrington made sure they had everyone, and they headed back to the hotel so everyone could clean up and pack because everyone needed to be home. When they got back, Peter was there, and Mr. Harrington was extremely mad that he skipped out, but also relieved that he was alright after the day that they’ve had, almost everyone stayed to listen to Peter getting scolded, except for Willa and Michelle. Michelle walked Willa to her room to make sure that she got there alright, and then headed to hers to pack her bag.</p><p>Willa spent a little longer in the bathroom, deciding to sit in the bathtub and soak, giving her legs a rest, focusing on trying to relax all her muscles. Despite what she’s had to go through in her life, she didn’t care to always have something on her mind, and what happened at the monument was just another thing to regret. She pulled the plug on the drain and quickly got out, throwing on the most comfortable clothes that she brought. When she finished packing her bag, she offered her shower to anyone else that would need it, but they decided against it, not wanting to bother the girl.</p><p>The bus ride home was quiet, and no one dared break the silence, especially not Peter. He knew he messed up. He knew that he would have to explain his actions, but he had no idea how, especially not to Willa.</p><p>Michelle had decided to sit next to Willa on their way back, and Willa was thankful for it. She sat there, leaning her head on Michelle’s shoulder, finding comfort in her only friend. The two girls could feel Peter staring at them, but neither of them had the energy to tell him off. Willa decided that she didn’t care that the competition was on a Wednesday. There was no way that she would be in school the rest of the week, and she was pretty sure that Mia wouldn’t care if she stayed home, and she knows Michelle, and Michelle would send her home if she showed up at school.</p><p>They arrived back at the school, and everyone had someone there, except Willa, but she didn’t expect otherwise. Mia wouldn’t come, because she knows the people at her school would recognize the Blackbird immediately. Willa wasn’t about to wait for May and Peter, even if May had wanted to give the girl a ride home. There was no reason to hang around at school. All Willa wanted was to get home, so Willa started on her way to the train station. She only made it a few blocks before she saw a taxi and decided to get a ride home that way instead.</p><p>Looking out the window, she finally felt like she could breathe, finding comfort in the familiarity of all the lights of Queens. When Willa moved, she really had no idea what Queens would come to mean to her. Looking out the window, it was probably the most at home she’d felt in a long time, but she wouldn’t lie. She’d thought about moving back to Salem. More than a few times. She loved being at the hospital and helping everyone there, and she didn’t have to lie about herself. She was free to be whoever she wanted.</p><p>She took the elevator up to her floor, knowing she wouldn’t make it all the way up the stairs, walked down the hall and walked in the door. And there was Mia, pacing in the living room, waiting for the girl who had always been there for her since she’d known her.</p><p>Willa dropped her bag and Mia flung her head up at the sudden noise, only to see a girl who needed her family. Mia rushed over to the girl, figuring that the girl was tired of walking, and gave her the comfort she needed. Willa held on tight, burying her face in Mia’s old T-shirt, finally letting all the emotion drain out of her. Willa just cried. She cried about almost dying again in a matter of months. She cried because she lost Peter. She cried for her parents. She cried for Steve and Bucky. She just cried.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Peter knew May was pissed at him. There was no way you wouldn’t be able to tell, but she was so glad that he was okay that she didn’t care at that moment.</p><p>“Peter,” she stated, while they were walking up the stairs, “I don’t know what you thought you were doing, but you can’t just go off like that. If you would’ve taken Willa with you, I would still be mad at you but at least Willa knows her way around. I mean, what were you thinking going off on your own like that?”</p><p>Peter didn’t know how to answer that. He’d thought about what he was going to say on the way home, and he came up with nothing. In all honestly, he hadn’t really thought about it that much because he was too worried about Willa to care.</p><p>Instead of answering May’s question he asked her why Willa would have a doctor’s note.</p><p>May stopped at their door, fishing in her purse for the key, asking, “Peter, what on Earth are you talking about?”</p><p>“Why would Chelsea write her a doctor’s note even though she is the healthiest person ever?”</p><p>May, still having no idea what he was talking about, kept digging in her purse and ignored his question. Mia had heard them talking through the door, as Willa had finally fallen asleep after crying all the tears that she had in her. When she heard that Peter was trying to pry into Willa’s business, especially since he hasn’t cared at all in the last few months, Mia decided enough was enough.</p><p>She got up carefully from the couch, so she didn’t wake Willa, and walked to the door to open it and confront Peter about it. She stepped out and closed the door behind her, turned to Peter and May, and hissed, “Because she’s not Peter, but I don’t suppose you’d care enough to listen for her to tell you so.”</p><p>Turning, they saw Mia standing there, having a mix of disappointment and anger written on her face, and neither of them was sure why she was so upset.</p><p>“What?” he asked.</p><p>“She tried to talk to you Peter,” Mia said accusingly, taking a step forward, “About why she was gone all summer. You didn’t listen. Instead, you slammed the door in her face and ignored her until, it seems, today. Get your shit straight, Peter. That girl doesn’t need you hopping in and out of her life. She’s got enough going on as it is.”</p><p>May was stunned. She thought that Peter knew why Willa was gone, but she was very wrong.</p><p>“Peter,” May said, whacking him on the arm, “I thought you talked to her? You told me that you talked to her.”</p><p>“She talked,” he mumbled, his shoulders falling, “I guess I just didn’t care what she had to say.”</p><p>Both women stopped for a moment, impressed that Peter admitted that out loud. They both were relieved to know that Peter now knows how badly he messed up. Though, that is only half the battle.</p><p>Both women were about to head back into their respective apartments when they heard a quiet, “Can I talk to her now? Please?”</p><p>Mia looked back at May, knowing that it was her decision whether Peter was over at that moment. Mia knew that if it was a choice of right now, she’d rather not wake Willa up. She also knew that if they did wake her up, Willa would give right into whatever Peter had to say because of what happened, and Mia wanted Peter to work to fix what he broke, not get off easy.</p><p>Peter glanced back and forth between the two adults, and May shook her head at him, in disappointment. Peter glanced to Mia, pleading for her to help him out, but she objected, “Not tonight Peter. Willa doesn’t need anything else to worry about, and no offense, she hasn’t been the same. You don’t think it mattered to her, but it mattered more than you’ll probably ever know.”</p><p>Mia shut the door, satisfied with how that conversation went, looking back at Willa who had fallen asleep on the couch, her face puffy from crying. Mia hoped that that would spur Peter into working to get his friendship back, for both of their sakes. Mia watched as Willa slept, the steady rise and fall of her chest, and decided to just sit there with her, not knowing how else she could help the teen.</p><p>On the other side of the door, Peter stared at her door, wondering how he could’ve been so stupid. He knew he messed up, and he knew he would be spending the rest of his days trying to make it up to them. May cleared her throat, startling Peter, and motioned for him to come into their apartment so they could finish their conversation.</p><p>He turned to walk through the door, and May slowly shut it behind him, and then she let him have it.</p><p>“Peter Benjamin Parker, how could you do that to that girl?” May was furious, “She’s not once ever left you out of something or left you waiting. So, the one time she does and tries to explain why she did after the fact, you slam the door in her face? That is not how I raised you.”</p><p>Peter put his hands up, surrendering, before putting his face in his hands. He said, dejectedly, “I know May. I was just so angry. I mean, she was gone all summer without a word. What could have possible happened that she wouldn’t tell me why she wasn’t coming home?”</p><p>“Maybe because that girl is too worried about inconveniencing others for her own good.” Peter was confused what that had to do with anything, and by looking at the expression May had on her face, he knew that he was missing something.</p><p>“May, what—”</p><p>“She was in a coma for two weeks Peter,” May admitted quietly, and Peter did a double take.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>May took a seat next to him, wanting him to understand why she wasn’t around. She repeated, “She was in a coma for two weeks, which is why you didn’t hear from her directly. It’s why Mia always answered her phone saying Willa was ‘busy.’ She couldn’t walk properly until a week before she came back, and when I asked her why she didn’t call or text or ask Mia to let us know what happened, do you want to know what she said? She said she didn’t want to bother us because Mia told her how excited you were about the Stark Internship. She almost died and we wouldn’t have known because she didn’t want to bother us.”</p><p>May let out a tiny sob, not able to imagine a world where Willa wasn’t there to brighten her day. Willa was just as much family as Peter was to her, and she could’ve lost a huge part of her family because Willa hadn’t wanted to bother anyone. That was something that May would never understand.</p><p>Peter had tears streaming down his face, but for a completely different reason. He’d been so excited to be Spider-Man, that he hadn’t thought about how his time commitments would have to change. He was being Spider-Man when she went to the hospital because she didn’t think he would notice. She didn’t say anything because she knew that he was so excited about his ‘internship’ and she didn’t want to ruin it. It was <strong><em>his </em></strong>fault that she didn’t say anything, and he hadn’t had the slightest idea.</p><p>“May,” he cried, “I didn’t know. I swear. I would’ve made sure she was okay. I would’ve checked on her…”</p><p>May took a deep breath, wiping the tears from her face, and turned to him, her fury returning full force.</p><p>“What she needed Peter,” she started, “was for you to be there, regardless of whether she told you or not. She needed her best friend, and now you’ve lost that chance because you didn’t listen. You know how she hates pity. Now because I told you what happened, she’ll think that you’re doing it for you, to appease your own conscious, not because you want to be there for her. So, you really need to think very carefully about what you do next.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Family Talks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Willa has always hated being the center of attention. She wasn’t sure what it stemmed from but it’s just always how she has felt. Her parents had noticed very early on, and decided to keep her out of the spotlight, which helped her out staying hidden with a different identity, but that was beside the point.</p><p>When she was at the School in Salem, she always felt most comfortable in the middle of the group, not being considered one of the know-it-alls, but also not being lumped in with the troublemakers in the back, either. It'd been the same at every school ever since. Everyone would always see the mysterious girl floating from group to group, and no one thought it odd. And that was the way Willa liked it. She liked to do her own thing, and she didn’t care to be noticed, because the more you’re noticed, the easier it is for someone to find you out.</p><p>The problem now? Everyone wanted to talk to her because of what happened in Washington D.C.</p><p>“Is it true Spider-Man stopped you from falling to your death?”</p><p>“Did he sound cute?”</p><p>“Are you guys best friends now?”</p><p>She hated it. All she wanted was to get over what happened, get back to normal, but with High School being High School, she needed something else huge to happen so that they would stop talking about it. Willa had gone to her locker to exchange some of her books out when she felt a presence behind her. Bracing herself for another new person to question her about Spider-Man, she turned around to find Peter standing there.</p><p>“Hi Wil,” he said, shoving his hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt.</p><p>“Hey,” she answered. She felt conflicted. She was surprised that he wanted to talk to her, all the sudden, but she also wasn’t surprised. She’d almost fallen to her death and so now he wanted to make up.</p><p>They stood there, because she wasn’t the one who initiated the conversation and after everyone else talking to her that day, she was just about ready to collapse. Peter could tell too, by the way that she was gripping her locker.</p><p>“How are you?” he asked.</p><p>“Fine,” she replied, ready to leave the conversation.</p><p>“You’re never ‘fine’ when you say you’re ‘fine’.”</p><p>She pondered that statement for a few moments before she decided that given the circumstances, she was allowed to be petty. She hit him with the question he was dreading.</p><p>“Why do you care if I’m fine or not?” She asked, readjusting her backpack, “You said it yourself, we aren’t friends.”</p><p>Peter spent most of the last few weeks trying to think of something that wouldn’t make it sound like he was there because he pitied her, and it was ridiculously hard, but he figured at this point it was better to just be honest.</p><p>“Can we talk?”</p><p>She was confused, so she asked, “Why?”</p><p>Peter knew she was being difficult, and he knew that he deserved it, so he kept pushing, “Because I should’ve been there for you, and I wasn’t. I should’ve listened to you and I didn’t, and I’m sorry. I want to make it up to you. Please.”</p><p>Willa could tell that he was trying really hard to make it better, and she had to give him credit where it was due. So, she gave him an ultimatum.</p><p>“Mia and I always order Reggie’s Pizza on Mondays. You and May can come over if you want. We eat at 5.” Willa shut her locker door. “I’ve got to go, or I’ll be late to class.”</p><p>And with that, Willa walked away, not quite sure why she’d decided he deserved a chance at all. Peter, on the other hand, had nothing but hope that he would be able to fix what he had smashed to pieces.</p><p>After school, Willa did her physical therapy, as always, but since Academic Decathlon was taking a break after winning the competition, she had extra time on her hands. She’d been spending more time online, discussing projects with Shuri and even helping her solve some problems with her inventions. Shuri even offered to teach her Xhosa, without knowing that Willa already knew a fair share of it, though Willa was glad for the refresher. Her mother was born in Wakanda and decided to go to University, first in England, then in the United States. When she started in the United States, she met Willa’s dad, who grew up speaking Spanish because of a nanny he had. The two then hatched the idea that became MSI, got married, and had Willa, who then grew up being tri lingual, speaking Spanish, Xhosa, and English.</p><p>At one point, they got so bored that Shuri even helped Willa develop her own Artificial Intelligence. Willa decided to call her E.L.L.A., short for Extremely Lovable, Learning Assistant, after her mom, which Shuri thought was adorable.</p><p>Shuri had even set up a few calls between Willa and Bucky, thinking that it would help Willa decompress. Willa enjoyed those conversations a lot. Her favorite thing was hearing the stories that Bucky had of when him, Steve, and Mia were all little kids, specifically their trips to Coney Island.</p><p>“That is hilarious,” she laughed so hard at the story that she had tears in her eyes.</p><p>“That is what I said, but Milly and Steve don’t think so. Milly was all mad because Steve just about threw up all over her dress. It was amazing.” Bucky enjoyed hearing the teenager laugh. He knew, from the stories that Mia had told him, that she didn’t do it enough.</p><p>“I also just think it is hilarious that you call Mia ‘Milly,’” she continued, “I think if anyone else tried it, they’d get punched in the face and then thrown out a window.”</p><p>He smiled at the thought, completely agreeing with Willa’s observation. Willa had noticed throughout their conversations that he seemed to smile more, and that made her smile because she was making a difference.</p><p>“Kid,” he started, pulling Willa out of her thoughts, “I know that you probably don’t want to hear it but thank you for what you did. Helping me and taking care of Milly and Chris.”</p><p>She was surprised that he’d even brought that up. “Why wouldn’t I? You’ve got to help the family you’ve got, and even though I hadn’t seen her in a while, she always checked up on me at least once every two weeks. It was less frequent when she was with you in Europe, but I knew she found you, so I knew that she’d call when she could. And you? You deserved none of what you got, and you both deserve to live a less complicated life.”</p><p>“God, kid,” he chuckled, “You sound wiser than I am, and I’m a hundred years old.”</p><p>They both chuckled.</p><p>“You know,” she started, hesitating at her wording, “You’re a lot like I think my dad would've been, and don’t go on apologizing for it like you do every time we talk. My life hasn’t ever been easy, but if it weren’t for what happened, I wouldn’t have met any of you, and I’m quite thankful and honored to get to know you.”</p><p>Bucky was speechless. He never thought he’d end up with someone like Willa in his life, and he was honored that she even thought to compare himself to her dad. Even before he fell off the train, he didn’t think he was going to get to have a family. But now he did, and he was thankful, and he told her so.</p><p>“Really, Serge. You and Mia are so much like what Chelsea has told me about them, so I guess, in a way, as long as it is okay with you, I lost my parents, but I found some too.”</p><p>Before Bucky could say anything about it, Willa heard Mia calling for her, saying that the pizza was there.</p><p>“Um, actually, dinner just got delivered,” she said, not making eye contact, “so I’ve got to go eat.”</p><p>Bucky smiled, knowing what day of the week it was. “Let me guess, pizza from Reggie’s?”</p><p>Willa scoffed, offended that he would think it was something else.</p><p>“Of course, it’s Reggie’s. Why would you think otherwise?”</p><p>He chuckled, and shook his head, “I’ll talk to you later, kid, and, for what it’s worth, you are family to me as much and Milly and Chris are.”</p><p>Willa smiled, grateful to know that she was just as important to him as he was to her, and tapped her keyboard, ending the call. She was elated at what he’d told her. She knew that she would never forget her parents, but it was nice to know that she had people in her life that would be there when she needed them to be.</p><p>“Wil,” Mia said, peeking in the door, “Are you coming to eat? It’s gonna get cold.”</p><p>“Yeah,” she stood to follow Mia out of the room, “I’m coming.”</p><p>“Why did you order extra pizza?” Mia asked, setting Chris in her highchair.</p><p>“Well, Peter said he wanted to talk,” she revealed, “so I told him that he and Aunt May could come over for pizza, as it is pizza night, but I’ll imagine he’d have forgotten by now. But I’ll still go get Aunt May because she’s not done anything wrong, and she loves Reggie’s, just like everyone who has had it.”</p><p>Mia was surprised that Peter had talked to her, but just shrugged it off as Willa headed across the hall to retrieve May Parker. She heard the two of them talking, but just headed to the kitchen to get down a few more plates, praying that Peter would show up and not leave her hanging again.</p><ul>
<li>• •   •   •   •   •</li>
</ul><p>They waited. They waited for a long time, but Peter never showed. To be honest, Willa wasn’t surprised one bit. She was done waiting for Peter.</p><p>“I’m going to head back to my room,” Willa said, irritated as she grabbed her backpack from the couch, “I’m not going to waste my time when I know he’s not going to show. Feel free to bring him the extra pizza, May.”</p><p>They both watched as Willa walked down the hall to her room and slammed the door shut. Mia and May shared a look. They both knew that Willa was incredibly stubborn, and that Peter not showing up after she gave him a chance to fix what had happened would not help things.</p><p>“I wish that they would just work things out,” May said, closing up the pizza box to take back across the hall for when Peter came home. “I know that he is my nephew, and I love him to pieces, I do, but I just don’t know what is going on with him. I got a call from the school today telling me that he just left detention. Up and left, and I don’t know why. I hoped he would show up so that I would know where he was, but I’m worried about him.”</p><p>“I am too,” Mia agreed, “but Willa and Chris are my priority, and, no offense May, Peter has been an ass since she got back. I know that it isn’t easy for a friend to just stop talking to you, trust me, but I don’t think that reaction was warranted.”</p><p>“I know. I’ve tried my hardest to raise a good kid, but what if I went wrong? I don’t want him to get into trouble that I can’t get him out of.”</p><p>“May,” Mia put her hand on May’s shoulder, “Peter is a smart kid. He will talk to you about it. Teenagers just have to work things out themselves before they talk to us about it, and maybe Peter is still working on it, though that doesn’t mean I don’t want to yell at him for standing Willa up.”</p><p>May chuckled but frowned.</p><p>“Thank you for the pizza,” May said, standing up to cross the hall, “I’m going to make sure that I figure out what’s wrong with him tonight. I promise.”</p><p>“I know you will May.”</p><p>Mia saw the look on May’s face and had never seen her more determined. It reminded her of a friend she used to have before the war, Mary Johnson. Mary had been a sweet girl, being Mia’s best friend all the way through school. She was a short brunette, but she was fierce, which is partly why Mia loved to spend time with her so much. She was like the female Steve, always trying to pick fights she wouldn’t win, except she’d end up winning them.</p><p>After they’d finished school, Mary and Mia had stopped talking as much as they used to, but that was because Mia went on to become part of the S.S.R. where Mary went to become a nurse. Eventually, Mary was sent overseas and was killed in a bombing raid.</p><p>Mia had started tearing up at the thought of her dear friend, so tried to shake away her tears, knowing May would question her.</p><p> “Have a good night May,” she added, “I’m going to go check on Willa.”</p><p>They gave each other a hug and went their separate ways, Mia grabbing Chris from her highchair and heading towards Willa’s bedroom while May headed across the hall.</p><p>When Mia knocked on the door and there was no response, she peeked her head in Willa’s room, noticing the girl watching the news.</p><p>“Well,” she started, “I know why Peter never showed now.”</p><p>Mia opened the door completely and walked inside, sitting next to Willa. Mia watched as a Ferry was cut completely in half, straight up the middle, and a small, red and blue figure was swinging all around trying to hold the two halves together, only for Iron Man to swoop in and help push the two halves back together so the Coast Guard and NYPD could escort it back to port.</p><p>Willa looked conflicted, so Mia asked, “Is that a good reason for not showing up?”</p><p>Willa wasn’t sure what she expected Mia to say, but that wasn’t it. She thought about everything that has happened, and how she felt about it. She knew that Peter had slammed the door in her face, which meant he didn’t want to hear her out. Then, for no reason, he starts caring. She knew that he’d been watching her around school. Then he wanted to make sure that she was feeling alright on the bus. Then he decides to avoid her for a week, before he finished beating around the bush and talked to her. He made an effort to try and explain himself at school, and she agreed to talk to him. She thought she was getting her friend back, but after this, she realized that she got her hopes up for nothing.</p><p>“No, it isn’t,” Willa stated, quite upset, “It isn’t alright. Peter tends to pick fights, just like Steve does, and though I don’t know what he’s been up to, he had no reason to be on that Ferry in the first place. If he went with the intent to confront someone that close to when he said he would be here, he wasn’t planning on making it back for pizza. Whatever he was doing was more important than this. Than me. Is it selfish of me to want this one thing? To want my best friend back?”</p><p>“Oh, sweetheart.”</p><p>And with that, Mia sat with Chris and Willa in Willa’s room, holding both girls while she wished that Willa could have a normal life. Be a normal teenager not having to worry about what to do about superheroes and evil organizations.</p><p>After a while, Willa spoke up, not sure how Mia would take what she had to say.</p><p>“I was talking with Bucky before dinner today.”</p><p>“Oh yeah?” Mia asked, “What did he have to say?”</p><p>She giggled before saying, “He told me about the time you and Steve road the Cyclone and Steve almost threw up on your dress.”</p><p>Mia scowled and Willa let out a laugh, which made Chris giggle.</p><p>“I told him it was funny,” she continued, not before taking a breath, “but I also told him he reminded me of what I remember about my dad.”</p><p>“And what did he say about it?” Mia asked, part of her being curious but the other part worried about why Willa was bringing it up to her.</p><p>“He told me that I’m as much a part of his family as you and Chris are.”</p><p>Mia’s heart swelled with pride, knowing that even though Willa never tells anyone how she feels, she knows that she has a family, as unconventional as it is.</p><p>“He told you that?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Willa smiled, “he did. I told him that even though awful things happened, it wasn’t his choice to kill my parents, and even though I lost them, I found the both of you, and I couldn’t be more thankful for it.”</p><p>Mia felt the tears starting to fill her eyes, and Willa definitely noticed. She thought that she had made Mia upset with that revelation.</p><p>“Did I do something to upset you? I didn’t mean to if I did. I mean, obviously I’m not your kid and it is alright if--”</p><p>“No,” Mia said, as sternly as she could, “You did nothing to upset me, Willa. You need to think more of yourself. I’m just so happy that you’re in my life, is all, and if it weren’t for the situation that we’re in currently, I wouldn’t hesitate to adopt you. Neither would James, and I hope you know that.”</p><p>There the both of them sat, on Willa’s bed, where most of the emotional conversations occur, letting the tears role down both of their faces while they embraced each other, until the 6-month-old decided she wasn’t receiving enough attention, grabbing at Willa’s curly hair and tugging on it.</p><p>“Okay,” Mia said, wiping the tears from her face and pulling Chris’s fist from Willa’s hair, “I swear I was not this emotional before I got pregnant. God, uh, why don’t we introduce this little troublemaker to some of the best movies on Earth?”</p><p>Willa laughed, one that Mia was so glad to hear, and wiped the tears from her face.</p><p>“Well, of course we should. She shouldn’t be deprived of them. No one should be.”</p><p>And so that was the way the rest of the night was spent, sitting on the couch, starting a movie marathon with <em>101 Dalmatians </em>and laughing at the expressions that Chris made while she was staring at the TV. The only way it could’ve been better, in Willa’s opinion? If Bucky could’ve been there too.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Across the hall, things were far from perfect. In fact, May was just outraged, and Peter had no idea what he was walking into.</p><p>When Peter knocked on the door to his apartment, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect. He knew he’d messed up, big time, and he hadn’t quite put together how to fix it.</p><p>When May opened the door, she looked at him, not believing that he was standing there, and motioned more him to follow her to the kitchen, not wanting the whole floor to hear what they were going to discuss. Peter pulled the door shut behind him as he followed May, knowing it would be better to not question her.</p><p>“I’ve been calling you all day,” she started rambling, pacing and wringing her hands, “You didn’t answer your phone. You can’t do that. Then this ferry thing happens. I’ve called 5 police stations. Five. I called 5 of your friends. I’ve called Ned’s mother.”</p><p>“I’m fine. May, I’m okay. Honestly, just relax. I’m fine.” As soon as Peter said that, he knew he messed up. He watched May whip around to look at him, with fury in her eyes.</p><p>May had had it with Peter’s lying. “Cut the bullshit.”</p><p>Peter had never seen May that upset.</p><p>“I know you left detention,” she started counting things on her hand, “I know you left the hotel room in Washington. I know you sneak out of this house every night.” May paused to take a breath. “That’s not fine. Peter, you have to just tell me what’s going on. Just lay it out. It’s just me and you.”</p><p>Peter could tell that his Aunt was grasping at straws, trying to make sense of what he was doing, but he knew he couldn’t tell his Aunt about Spider-Man. He also knew he couldn’t keep what had happened all bottled up, and now he felt as defeated as she did angry.</p><p>“I lost the Stark Internship.” Peter could feel the tears starting to roll down his face.</p><p>“What?” The look on her face softened from anger to pity. She was surprised. She knew the effort he put into it and knew he wouldn’t have done anything to jeopardize it.</p><p>“Yeah,” he mumbled.</p><p>“What happened?”</p><p>“I just thought that I could work really hard and he could, he would, you know,” he sighed, sitting down at the kitchen table, “but I screwed it up.”</p><p>“It’s okay. It’s okay.”</p><p>May went to hug him, and that was really all he needed, everything that he’d had on his mind was about to slip out. She held his head to her stomach and ran her fingers through his hair, trying to calm him down. She could feel his tears soaking into the front of her shirt.</p><p>“I’m sorry I made you worry,” he whispered.</p><p>“I’m not trying to ruin your life,” she replied, “but you should know, the next time Mia sees you, I think she might punch you in the face, and I’m not sure I’d stop her.”</p><p>It had finally dawned on him, “Pizza…” He glanced up at May, feeling like this day couldn’t get any worse.</p><p>“Yeah.” She paused, knowing that now Peter was going to hate this day even more. Nodding towards the fridge, she continued, “Willa sent some home with me for you, by the way. It’s in the fridge,” she paused again, not sure how he’d take the next part, “As much as you think Willa wants nothing to do with you, she really wanted you to show up.”</p><p>“God, I’m an awful person.” He just put his face in his hands, trying to keep it together. She’d always been there for him, and he promised to be there tonight, and he wasn’t.</p><p>“You’re not awful, Pete,” May said, stroking his hair, “You just need to get your priorities straight. I know that you might not think you have a chance now, but I still think fixing things with that girl should be the first thing on your list. Don’t you dare be late for her. From what Mia tells me, she doesn’t have a lot of friends, and she’s not trying to make any, because she’s afraid someone will find her out and turn her in. Don’t make her think of you like that too.”</p><p>She leaned down to kiss his head but noticed how much he smelled.</p><p>“And take a shower,” she said, scrunching her face, “You smell. You smell like garbage.”</p><p>He sighed, standing up to go take one, “I know.”</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>The next day, Peter sat in the principal’s office for his detention stunt.</p><p>“Peter,” the principal started, “you’re a good kid and a smart kid, so just try to keep your head straight, okay?”</p><p>Peter nodded. “Okay.”</p><p>“All right,” the principal said, motioning to the door, “get out of here.”</p><p>He’s now accomplished one thing on his list: not getting expelled from school.</p><p>The next thing on his list; make it up to Willa.</p><p>He’d texted Mia, knowing if he’d actually knocked on her door, she’d punch him, asking if Willa still went to get ice cream every Thursday, and Mia didn’t know why, but she’d texted him back saying that she did, though she’d gone a little later, usually stopping at the parlor around 5, since she did her physical therapy first.</p><p>The plan was that Peter would be there around then, early, actually, so that he could make it up to her, but first he had to make it through detention. He was getting his life back on track, and that started with dealing with the consequences of your actions.</p><p>He’d been on his way back to class from the bathroom, when he ran into Liz.</p><p>“Hey,” he said.</p><p>“Hey,” she smiled at him.</p><p>“I, uh, thought you had calculus fifth period,” he desperately wanted to not make their exchange awkward, so he kept his distance, which Liz noticed.</p><p>“Yeah, I was just doing some homecoming stuff.”</p><p>She took a few steps toward him, which showed him that he had made it awkward by standing so far away from her. They settled for looking at the trophy case, where the new Academic Decathlon trophy had been placed.</p><p>“Hey, look, I, uh—” he stammered, knowing he also need to fix things with Liz, “I just wanted to apologize about the whole decathlon thing.”</p><p>“It’s fine,” she frowned, looking between the trophy case and Peter, “Last week, decathlon was the most important thing, but then I almost died. Willa almost died,” she shook her head, as if the motion would let her forget what had happened, “After I’d been so mean to her, and I don’t think I could’ve lived with myself if the last thing I’d done with her was argue.”</p><p>That day haunted Peter. The look she had on her face as the elevator plummeted haunted him. He had nightmares because of it. What had happened was his fault, there was no denying it. He had been the reason his best friend, <em>ex-best friend according to him, </em>almost died saving everyone else on the elevator. Peter shook his head, trying to get rid of those thoughts, noticing that Liz was looking at him, waiting for him to say something.</p><p>“No, I’m—” Peter said, trying to reorganize his thoughts, “—I just mean that it was not cool, especially, uh, because,” he was having trouble getting his words out, “I like you.”</p><p>“I know.” Peter’s head shot up to look at Liz.</p><p>“You do?” he said, his eyes widening by the second.</p><p>“You’re terrible at keeping secrets,” Liz pointed out. He shook his head at her.</p><p>“Yeah, you’d be surprised,” he said, smiling to himself.</p><p>“I got to get to class, but, um— “Peter started smiling, “—I’d say we should hang out, but I’m gonna be in detention forever, but, um, I guess you already have a date to homecoming.”</p><p>“Actually,” she started, turning to face Peter, “I was so busy planning it, I never really got around to that part, so…”</p><p>“Uh, do you want to go with me?” he said, quite hopeful since she brought it up, she would say yes.</p><p>“Yeah. Sure.”</p><p>“Really?” He coughed, trying to cover his excitement, “I mean, uh, great. Cool.”</p><p>“Cool,” she smiled.</p><p>He turned to walk away, when he realized he was walking the wrong way. “I’m actually going that way.”</p><p>As he walked, a huge smile broke out across his face. Things were starting to look up for him.</p><p>He made it through the rest of his day, including detention, and was about to run home to tell May that he had a date, when he realized that he had one more thing to do before the day was done, and if he didn’t hurry, he was going to be late.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Willa was finally beginning to get over what happened, and she seemed to be doing well. She was happy. She <em>is</em> happy. She was working hard in school, determined to be the best in her class. Since the beginning of the year, with everything going on, she didn’t get off to a great start. Her teachers noticed. They had heard the stories from her previous teachers, and her reputation didn’t match what she put forth in class. Some teachers, new and old, even brought it up to her, after class or in the hallway, so she’d worked her hardest to do her best and make it up to them. She’d sometimes even stay after school to catch up, and her teachers gave her extra credit to make up for the first few weeks she’d had problems with. They knew what had happened, the story explained to them by Ms. B, who works in the office, which means a cover story about Willa having been in an accident and had been in the hospital all summer.</p><p>On top of that, she got stuck doing some of Peter’s work as she got paired with him in Chemistry for a project. Since he was always disappearing, and she didn’t want to fail, she had to do all the work to show her teachers she could keep up, despite what they had heard. That was something that Peter had yet to find out, as far as she knew.</p><p>Other than that, it was just another normal Thursday. She had almost made it through another week. After working her ass off at physical therapy, she stopped on her way home to get her weekly ice cream to go. When she walked into the parlor, the clerk immediately started scooping her cone, but informed Willa that her ice cream had already been paid for, pointing to a table towards the back of the shop.</p><p>She glanced at the table, and, much to her surprise, there sat Peter Benjamin Parker, holding his ice cream, looking as though he is trying to figure out what exactly to say when he saw her.</p><p>Willa glanced back to the clerk, who was totally rooting for Peter and Willa to make up, to give a look.</p><p>“Go on, Willa. He’s trying. Give him a chance,” she whispered.</p><p>Hesitantly, Willa walked over, sitting down at the table to the two always shared, and Peter jumped, finally noticing that she was there.</p><p>He smiled sheepishly, trying to calm his nerves before finally speaking up, saying “I figured that I should start making up for those Thursdays that I missed.”</p><p>She couldn’t decide how to feel about Peter showing up like this, so while she thought of what to say, she took in his appearance. She noticed that the bags under his eyes had disappeared, which told her that he was finally getting sleep, and he had his backpack still, which meant that he hadn’t gone out to be Spider-Man yet that day, and the fact that it was the same backpack that he had last week showed her that he actually must have been keeping track of his stuff. She noticed that he had started fidgeting more than normal and realized that she hadn’t said anything yet.</p><p>“Um,” she took a bite of the ice cream, “Thank you for the, uh, ice cream.”</p><p>“Yeah, no problem.” He rubbed the back of his neck trying to calm the nerves, just like he’d done since she’d met him.</p><p>Then something had finally dawned on her. “Peter, how did you know that I’d be here? This is later than we always stopped for our ice cream.”</p><p>“I, uh,” Peter cleared his throat before continuing, “I texted Mia and asked, because I’m pretty sure if I showed my face in front of her right now, she’d punch me in the face, which I totally deserve, by the way. I’m surprised she told me, but she said you always stop after you’re done at the gym, so...”</p><p>Willa decided that she would need to have a talk with Mia about that later, and Peter was just trying to not make this awkward.</p><p>“How is that going, by the way. The physical therapy, I mean.” He watched her look up at him, confused about how he knew and why he was asking.</p><p>“How’d you know that I have physical therapy every day?”</p><p>Peter had forgotten that she didn’t know that May had told him she got hurt.</p><p>“Oh,” he stammered, that revelation would definitely throw a wrench in his plan, “uh, well, the night that we got back from D.C., I asked May why Chelsea would write you a doctor’s note even though you never have anything wrong with you and she told me what happened. I mean, not exactly what happened, but that you almost died, um, over the summer at the hospital, and then when I texted Mia about if you still got ice cream every Thursday, she mentioned the physical therapy, so I assumed it had something to do with that.”</p><p>It was as though the world came to a standstill, and to Peter, the silence was deafening. He didn’t know what else to say, and Willa had so many thoughts hit her at once that she was trying to compile them before she chose what she should start with. Him saying all of that brought emotions back to the surface that she thought had gone away.</p><p>“Why do you care, Peter?” Peter just stared at her like she grew another head. He wasn’t sure why she would ask that.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Now she was getting worked up.</p><p>“I said,” She took a breath, “Why do you care? You haven’t cared for months, and now all the sudden because you found out what happened, you decide to? I don’t need your pity, Peter. You know I don’t, and I won’t let you bribe me with ice cream to get me back,” she stood up to leave, having had enough of the game he was trying to play, “I’m worth more than that, and you know it.”</p><p>Everyone in the ice cream parlor was silent as they watched Willa leave. Peter sat there with a dumbfounded look on his face, until he just dropped his head, hitting it, hard, on the table.</p><p>“You honestly didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”</p><p>Peter turned his head to look at the old man sitting at the table next to him.</p><p>“Excuse me?”</p><p>“I think you heard me, son.”</p><p>Peter looked at the man, confused why he was talking to him.</p><p>The man just shook his head before he set the newspaper he had in his hand down to fully face Peter.</p><p>“I remember the two of you. You were in here every Thursday. Never missed one. Then the summer hit, and I didn’t see you, either of you, until that young Miss got back, and then she’d be in here by herself every week. It doesn’t take much to put two and two together, son. You messed up, and I’m not sure you’ve grasped that. From what I just saw, that young lady is stubborn, and I’d wager that a lot of people underestimate that, including you. She’s right. She’s worth more, a lot more, than a few ice creams.”</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>When Willa walked through the door, Mia was folding the laundry that she had just pulled out of the dryer. Mia glanced up to see look at Willa when she heard the door shut.</p><p>“Hey, sweetheart. How was school today?” Mia asked as she set a pile of shirts back in the basket so they could be taken to put away.</p><p>“Amelia,” Willa was fuming, and hearing the use of her full name, Mia knew it, “Why did you tell Peter what time I stop to get ice cream on Thursdays?”</p><p>Mia had underestimated slightly how upset Willa would be when she found out that Mia had given up her ice cream schedule. In all honesty, Mia wasn’t sure what made her give Peter a truthful answer, but she wanted to see the two of them make up for two reasons. 1) Willa needed to spend less time in her room and doing more fun things, preferably with people her age, and 2) her and Peter both liked each other and just refused to admit it.</p><p>“Well,” Mia started, slowly. Judging by the look on Willa’s face, she knew Willa could explode if she said the wrong thing. “I wanted you to hear him out. May told me he lost the ‘Stark Internship’ the night you invited them over for pizza, and he wanted to make things right, starting with you. Trust me, I want to throttle the boy for doing what he did, I do, and I know that you know that, but I know you miss him. I’m old, but I’m not stupid. I know that regardless of how bad he messed up in your eyes, you’re going to make him work for it.”</p><p>“I don’t need him in my life, Mia. I am doing just fine without him.” Willa could feel the tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She would not cry over this boy again.</p><p>“Not once when you’ve said that you’re ‘fine’, have you actually been ‘fine’, Willa.” Mia stood up to walk to Willa, placing her hands on her shoulders. “I know you know that. You guys were best friends, and should still be best friends, and I’m the one who decided to not say anything to them about what happened, not you. If you want to give them someone to be mad at, they can be mad at me. Trust me, I can handle it.”</p><p>Willa let out a laugh and shook her head. “It’s too late for that, Mia. He’s was mad at me, but since May told him what happened, now he pities me, and I don’t need that either,” Willa huffed, “Also, for the record, I wasn’t the first thing on his list. Liz was. It was all over school by the end of the day today. Peter is taking her to Homecoming.”</p><p>Willa shook Mia’s hands off her shoulders and went to continue to her room to start her homework when she heard Mia say, “If you don’t care, then why does him asking Liz to the dance bother you?”</p><p>When Willa turned around, she saw the look on Mia’s face, and she knew she’d been caught in her lie.</p><p>“I, uh,” Willa was searching for something to say, and not doing very well, “Fine. You caught me. After everything he’s shoved back in my face, I still care, and I don’t know why. I can’t just flip a switch and not care about him, but just because I care, doesn’t mean I want to. He is so infuriating, and I know he’s trying, but I can’t just let him back in like nothing happened. He ignored me for months, and now that he ‘lost the Stark Internship’, whatever that means, he’ll have time for me? I don’t buy it. He’s Peter. He’s always wanted to help people, and he’ll keep doing it, whether he has Tony’s help or not. He’ll just put me last like he did last time, and I’ll get hurt all over again. I’m not going to let that happen. I’m worth more than that, Mia. You taught me that.”</p><p>Mia, proud yet dumbfounded, just watched Willa continue towards her room. She knew she saw the tears forming in Willa’s eyes, and she hated that this girl was hurting. Mia heard the door of Willa’s room click open and then closed again. The two had been together for almost a year now, and she was honored to watch Willa grow into a young woman. Watch the confidence in herself soar, but Mia had severely underestimated how stubborn Willa could be, just, as she’s sure, everyone else has too. She wanted to see the two become friends again, but she also knew why Willa had concluded what she had about Peter.</p><p>Mia hasn’t known Peter nearly as long as Willa has, but she did know what Willa was talking about when Willa said Peter always found a way to help people. Mia knew that he did, and she knew he always went out of his way to help if someone was struggling, especially if it was the “little guy.” He reminded Mia of Steve in that regard, but that was the problem. He would drop something if he knew he could help, even Willa, and she was right not wanting to get hurt like that.</p><p>Mia sat back down, continuing with the laundry when she heard Willa’s door click again, and Willa appeared around the corner, wearing some leggings and a tank top. Setting down the pair of jeans down on her lap, she focused her attention on Willa.</p><p>“I decided I’m gonna go back to the gym for a while. I need some time to think about everything. I can pick something up for dinner, if you want?”</p><p>Mia smiled at her, “We’ve still got leftovers in the fridge, so you take as much time as you need. Just text me and let me know when you’re on your way back and I can warm it up for you, alright?”</p><p>Willa nodded, and turned to head towards the door.</p><p>“I love you, Wil. You know that, right?” Mia said, wanting to make sure that Willa knew she was in her corner, “I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”</p><p>Willa seemed surprised that Mia would say ‘I love you’, but smiled none the less, “I know. I love you too, Mia. I’ll see you later.” And with that, Willa walked out the door.</p><p>When Mia finished with all of the laundry, she decided she’d had enough of the fighting between the two teens. Mia went to check on Chris, who was still down napping, <em>thank God,</em> before she made her way across the hall and knocked on the door, hoping there was a Peter Parker on the other side of it.</p><p>“Coming,” she heard, and was glad she’d finally get to talk to Peter, face to face.</p><p>When Peter opened the door to find Mia standing there, he’d felt some dread creeping up. He didn’t really want to talk to Mia.</p><p>“H-Hey Mia. How are you?” he stuttered.</p><p>Not acknowledging Peter, Mia looked behind him to see May drying some dishes in the kitchen and asked if she minded Mia stealing Peter to talk for a little bit.</p><p>“Of course not. Maybe you can talk some sense into him, Mia,” May joked, but only about half joking, and Peter looked at May with wide eyes, like she just sent him to his death.</p><p>Mia motioned for him to head across the hall, and she was enjoying scaring the boy quite a bit.</p><p>He followed Mia across the hall, shutting his own door behind him, but not before noticing the encouraging smile that flashed across May’s face. Peter crossed the hall into the Miller Apartment, and Mia shut the door behind him, telling him to take a seat on the couch. She noticed the stiffness in his posture and let out a chuckle.</p><p>“You can relax, Pete. I’m not going to swing at you.” She watched his stance relax slightly, “I needed to talk to you about something and I’m pretty certain you wouldn’t want May to hear it.”</p><p>Peter nodded. He wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but figured if she needed to say it, he should hear it. After all, if he can get her help making it up to Willa, that would be ideal.</p><p>Mia looked him right in the eye and said, “I know that you’re Spider-Man.”</p><p>That was a full stop for Peter. He couldn’t let her know that he was Spider-Man because she would definitely tell Aunt May.</p><p>“I’m not Spider—"</p><p> “And before you try to tell me you’re not,” she interrupted, “I want you to know that I spent quite a lot of time with Natasha Romanoff and got quite good at reading people, and the way your eyes widened when I said that tell me everything I need to know.”</p><p>Peter wasn’t quite sure what to say, but knew that Mia was great at keeping things secret, she was a spy, and figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask, “Please don’t tell Aunt May. She’d freak out, and then I’d freak out because she’d freak out and—”</p><p>“Peter,” she said, grabbing his shoulder, which effectively stopped his rambling, “I’m not gonna tell Aunt May. I’m not stupid, but I need some information from you.”</p><p>“Okay,” Peter breathed a sigh of relief, feeling better that she won’t tell Aunt May, though he wasn’t quite sure what she needed to ask. She’d seen a lot of things being an Avenger. She knew way more about being a hero than he did.</p><p>“I’m assuming that ‘Stark Internship’ is code for being Spider-Man, but what does ‘lost the Stark Internship’ mean?” she questioned. She watched Peter’s face drop.</p><p>“It means he took the suit, after what happened with the Ferry. He said if I don’t think I’m anything without the suit, then I shouldn’t have it.”</p><p>Mia could tell by the look on his face that what Tony had said hurt him, but she also knew that if Tony said it, it was what Peter needed to hear.</p><p>“Pete, he’s right.”</p><p>“What?” He glanced at her, not sure why she’s agreeing with what Mr. Stark had told him.</p><p>“You don’t need the suit to be a good person,” She started, noticing the confused look on his face, “You can help people whenever you want, and you don’t need to be Spider-Man to do it. It is just easier because people don’t know that it’s you.”</p><p>Peter nodded, not sure what else to do. That did make him feel better though, hearing what Mia said about helping people.</p><p>“Look Pete, do you want to know why Willa is so hesitant to give you another chance?”</p><p>Of course, he wanted to know. He needed his friend back. The one that would debate with him. The one that would help him with Spanish. The one that would scold him for never reading <em>Harry Potter.</em></p><p>“God, she’s gonna hate me for telling you all of this, but it needs to be said,” Mia rubbed her face, praying to whichever God was listening that she could finally get each of them to understand, “She watched you pull away the first time. Slowly spending less and less time with her, and she thought it was her fault. That it was because you didn’t want a mutant as a friend but wouldn’t say it to her face. That’s why she didn’t tell you. She figured you wouldn’t even notice she was gone because you hardly noticed when she wasn’t around anymore. When she got hurt, it was my choice not to tell you right away, not hers, and she went with it because I told her how excited you were for the ‘Stark Internship’. She didn’t want to ruin it by telling you what happened, so she went with what I told you. Then you got mad when she showed up out of nowhere, like nothing happened. Slammed a door in her face, and ignored her, until what happened in D.C., which I would love an explanation for later,” She watched him pale when she mentioned D.C., but continued on, “Now you’re doing the exact same thing to her. Showing up after months of not talking, like nothing was wrong. Except, you’re expecting the reaction to be different.”</p><p>Mia let that sink into his head, watching his face turn from confusion to understanding. He just stared down at his hands, knowing that he had really messed up. More than he had originally thought.</p><p>“She doesn’t want to get hurt again. She doesn’t want to let you in and watch you do the exact same thing because being Spider-Man comes first. I’m all for you helping people, Peter, but that doesn’t mean you get to drop everything in your life to do it. That doesn’t mean you get to drop <em>everyone </em>in your life to do it.”</p><p>Mia felt like she had finally broken through to one of the teens, and it felt empowering. She knew that both of these kids grew up without parents, and she knew that she would never want to replace them, but doing this, being there for these kids, felt just as good, if not better, than when she was kicking down doors with the Avengers.</p><p>“I guess I never thought about it like that,” Peter seemed to be having an epiphany. He hadn’t thought about that, really at all. He thought about what he wanted to do and did it.</p><p>“Now that that seems to have gotten through your head,” Mia smiled and stood, pointing to the door, “I’m gonna have to ask you to leave because if Willa walks in while you’re still here, she probably won’t talk to either of us ever again.”</p><p>Peter immediately stood up to go, not wanting to ruin his chances at getting his best friend back. As Peter walked out the door, he heard Mia say something else to him.</p><p>“What’d you say Mia?” he asked.</p><p>“I said have fun at the dance with Liz.” Peter wasn’t quite sure why she mentioned it, but just nodded his head, and continued out the door, thinking of ways he could make it up to Willa, but also now freaking out because he asked Liz to the dance and she said yes.</p><p>Running back across the hall, he stopped in front of May, stating, quite abruptly, “May, I need your help.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Late Night Chaos</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter does contain some blood, just a fair warning.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Peter,” May pinched at his cheeks, “You look so handsome.”</p><p>“May,” he said, swatting her hands away, “stop doing that. We’ve still got to see if Willa needs a ride before you drop me off.”</p><p>“Alright, alright. You go get her and I’ll get my stuff.”</p><p>Peter was excited. It was Homecoming tonight and over the past few weeks, he split his time between preparing for the dance, with the help of May, and trying to make it up to Willa. He could tell that he was wearing her down, too. She wouldn’t disappear during lunch anymore, so he could finally sit with her again, and she’d actually have a conversation with him. It wasn’t always a long one, but it was better than nothing. Last week, she actually sat and had ice cream with him until they were both finished, which is also where he learned that she’d been keeping his chemistry grade afloat, which he then thanked her for profusely. Now he had something else to make up for.</p><p>But it was progress, and that was all that mattered.</p><p>When he knocked on the door of Willa’s apartment, he wasn’t surprised that she answered it, but was surprised that she was in her pajamas.</p><p>“Hey Peter,” she yawned, leaning against the door, “Well, don’t you look nice.”</p><p>She looked at him, wanting to tell him how handsome he looked, but was too stubborn to let the words out.</p><p>“Why don’t you look nice?” Quickly realizing what he just said out loud, he backtracked. “No, uh, not that you don’t always look nice, you do, but, I mean, why are you still in your pajamas? Aren’t you going to the dance tonight?”</p><p>Willa chuckled, reaching out to straighten his tie, like she’d done before with people at the School for the Gifted when they had their annual dance, one that she never went to. “No, I’m not going. Dances aren’t really my thing. Haven’t ever really been my thing. I don’t care for the feeling of sitting in an uncomfortable dress and shoes all night to watch teenagers drink spiked punch.” <em>Or watching you and Liz canoodle all night.</em></p><p>“Oh, um, okay then. You’re not doing anything then?” He tried to hide his disappointment that she wasn’t coming, but also wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t. He’d known her for a long time.</p><p>“Mia and I ordered a pizza and planned on watching movies, but, uh,” looking back at Mia, a ghost of a smile crossed Willa’s face, “I don’t really think she’s gonna be awake that much longer. Chris had a rough night last night. Mia didn’t really get any sleep and she wouldn’t let me stay up with her so she could get some.”</p><p>“Oh.” Peter said, understanding why Mia wouldn’t let her do that. When Willa got in her moods, she often ‘forgot to sleep”, as she said, and it was most definitely his fault that she was in a mood. “Got it. Um, have fun with your movie night, then. I guess.”</p><p>“Thanks, Peter,” Willa noticed May walking out of the other apartment, holding the corsage that he must have for Liz, “Have fun with Liz at the dance.”</p><p>Peter was confused why her and Mia kept bringing up the fact that he was taking Liz to the dance, but smiled none the less and thanked her.</p><p>“Hey Willa. Are you not going to the dance?” May asked, scaring Peter, as he hadn’t realized that May had walked up behind him.</p><p>“Uh, no, I’m not, but thanks for offering me a ride,” Willa thanked. She knew May would start asking questions, and because she knew the Parkers, she knew that they were probably late leaving for wherever they needed to be.</p><p>So, with that, Willa smiled and shut the door.</p><p>Walking down the stairs, Aunt May looked at Peter, not sure what just happened with Willa.</p><p>“I thought you said you fixed things?”</p><p>Peter sighed, “We’re getting there.”</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>Inside the Miller apartment, it wasn’t that much of a party, though Willa didn’t mind. She’d never been one for parties and probably never would be. Mia had made it about halfway through <em>101 Dalmatians </em>before she could barely keep her eyes open and was trying very hard to hide it. Willa could see right through her, though, and sent her to bed. Mia was much too tired to dispute it.</p><p>Since the TV was on the wall shared with Mia’s room, Willa opted to continue her movie night solo using her projector in her room. She grabbed her bin of movies and her snacks, popcorn and brownies, and headed to her room. She often enjoyed using her projector as her ceiling was white, so it was the perfect surface, but also because it allowed her to lay flat on her back. She set everything down, put <em>101 Dalmatians </em>into the DVD player and resumed her movie viewing.</p><p>She finished watching <em>101 Dalmatians </em>with a smile on her face, and decided that because she watched <em>101 Dalmatians, </em>she had to watch <em>the Aristocats, </em>another childhood favorite. She watched the credits start rolling, because on the old movies, the credits were at the beginning of the movie and not the end, Willa let her mind wander.</p><p>She often wondered what it would’ve been like if she was normal. No powers, a blood family that actually liked her, not moving what seemed like all the time, the whole deal. If her parents were still who they were, they wouldn’t have moved to Salem Center to be closer to the hospital, they would’ve stayed in Manhattan to be closer to their business headquarters. Would her parents have still built the device that HYDRA wanted? Would they have given it to them or would they still have been killed? Even if her parents had still been killed, her grandparents probably would’ve kept her because they wouldn’t have thought she was a freak, at least not at first. Of course, there was the probability that they could’ve always been like that, powers or not. If they were always going to be abusive, it could’ve meant that Willa could’ve ended up dead because she didn’t have her powers to protect herself. Would she still have met Peter and May? Everything had its pros and cons; everything had its ups and downs.</p><p>Before she knew it, she noticed the title screen for <em>the Aristocats, </em>not even noticing that the movie had actually started, let alone that it finished. Looking at her clock, she noticed it was almost midnight. Not feeling very tired yet, she decided that the night was perfect for a <em>Harry Potter </em>movie marathon.</p><p>“Harry, you’ve not failed me yet,” she mumbled, searching through her basket full of DVDs for the eight <em>Harry Potter</em> movies, full well knowing she wouldn’t actually finish them all before she fell asleep, when she heard something knocking against her window.</p><p>“Now you’re just imagining things, Wil,” she whispered, “Get yourself together.”</p><p>Another knock.</p><p>Curious to see what could possibly be hitting her window in the middle of the night, she moved her curtain, to see a battered and bruised Peter Parker. He was sitting down on her fire escape, his face all different shades of purple, his eyes bloodshot, his hand was holding his side, which made her think that he had broken, or at least severely bruised, some ribs, and his clothes were torn all over.</p><p>Quickly opening the window, she waited for him to say something before she tried to touch him. She didn’t want to startle him, but was also in shock herself, not sure what he could’ve done to get himself this beat up.</p><p>“Wil,” he wheezed, “I need help and I wasn’t sure where else to go.”</p><p>Without missing a beat, she asked, “Can you make it to my bed by yourself?”         </p><p>He felt relieved that she was able and was going to help, but his whole body was in pain, so he shook his head. He felt ready to collapse into a puddle of nothing, which worried Willa. She took her time getting Peter through her window, careful not to hit his head or any other injured body part on the windowsill, and then helped him limp his way over to her bed which she had cleaned everything off of. She instructed him to lay down on her bed and get in as comfortable position as he could while she went to get her first aid kit from the bathroom.</p><p>When she got back, she sat down and went to work. She decided that since his legs were still and propped up that she would work her way up from the bottom. Neither said much as she worked, not really needing too. Between being at the School for the Gifted and helping Chelsea at the hospital, Willa knew how to take care of her fair share of injuries. Checking cuts and scrapes and giving stiches was nothing new for Willa, and she noticed that Peter was trying to stay with it, but had nothing to focus on, so she restarted <em>the Aristocats </em>so he would have something to focus on. He gave her a small smile in thanks, and for the first time in a while, she gave him a small, but completely genuine, smile back.</p><p>She had made it up to a particularly deep cut on his outer thigh and decided that that one needed to be stitched. She warned him that she was going to give him stitches and she wasn’t sure if he heard her because he hadn’t acknowledged her, but let the movie distract him. He flinched on the first few stitches, for which she gave a small “sorry,” but by the last one, she wasn’t sure that he had noticed she had kept going.</p><p>She looked at his palms, noticing the blistered tissue that came from being burned. She wondered how all of it had happened but decided that right now wasn’t the time to be questioning what he had done. She knew that if he was this beat up that he believed in whatever it was that he was doing, and she didn’t have any right to try and convince him otherwise. She took one hand and covered the palm in the burn cream before placing a gauze pad on top of it and wrapping his hand in medical tape so that the gauze would keep the burn covered and the cream wouldn’t get everywhere. She then took his other hand and did the exact same thing.</p><p>She checked over his torso, only seeing minor cuts, but still needed to check his ribs. She asked him if he could take of what looked to be the remains of a sweatshirt, and slowly he sat up and she helped him get it off. She double checked that none of the cuts needed stitches, and in fact, she even witnessed some of them closing right in front of her eyes, which put her at ease for Peter being okay. While she was cleaning some of the cuts, she did notice Peter flinch when she touched a few ribs, and she apologized after she pushed on a few of them, but was relieved that none were broken. Some of them were just bruised.</p><p>Peter had set his focus back on the movie, watching the Edgar the Butler getting chased around by the two dogs that lived on the farm, and she focused on his face. She noticed some dried blood on his forehead, which she cleaned off, which revealed that his cut had closed on its own. His eyes had started to drift shut, and she knew that he was trying his hardest to stay awake. He had a few bruises on his face, the most prominent one being on the right side of his face, just below his eye, so she made an ice pack for him and set it on his face to speed along the process.</p><p>Now, had it been earlier in the day, when Willa wasn’t worried how Peter got so hurt, and Peter wasn’t trying so hard to stay awake, they would’ve noticed what happened a lot faster. Willa however, noticed before Peter did, and she tried not to startle him as she spoke.</p><p>“Um,” she whispered, still trying to process everything, “I’ll get you some of your clothes that you left here out of my closet that you can put on. You can just put the bloody stuff in my laundry bin. I’ll take care of it later. You should also probably text Ned so that he knows that you’re okay,” she held out her phone, “I’ll take Mia’s and text May that you’re here so she doesn’t send out a search party, because that would be bad.” Peter nodded his head, knowing that whatever just happened would be a lot worse if Aunt May came storming in here looking for him later. He stared at her, not sure why she was freaking out until he realized what she had set on his face. It was a perfectly formed chuck of ice that hadn’t started melting.</p><p>Drawing him out of his thoughts, she grabbed one of her pillows and a blanket out of her basket before saying, “I’ll sleep on the couch tonight. Get some sleep. I’m sure your stitches will be ready to come out in the morning.”</p><p>He looked at her as though she was crazy. “But,” his voice was shaking from how tired he was, “We need to talk about what happened.”</p><p>She gave him a small smile, though this time it didn’t look quite as genuine. “We’ll talk in the morning. You can barely keep your eyes open, anyways. Get some sleep, Peter.”</p><p>Before he could say anything else, she quietly opened her door and headed to the couch, shutting the door behind her. Neither of them went to bed. Peter lay there, icepack in hand, trying to comprehend what had just happened. He brought a plane down, saved the villain, who happened to be his date’s dad, went to his best friend’s apartment because he knew she would help fix him up, and found out that she had ice powers.</p><p>Willa, though, was trying to keep her panic to a minimum, so she went straight for her tub of ice cream in the freezer. She saw Mia had left her phone to charge in the kitchen, so she quick sent a message to May saying that Peter had decided to crash at her place rather than his.</p><p>Willa knew what she just did was bad. She hadn’t meant to show Peter her powers. She didn’t want to have to move somewhere else. She didn’t want to forget about her life in Queens. She didn’t want to forget May or Peter, but in a moment of thoughtlessness, she showed her powers right in front of him. She promised herself she wouldn’t do that in front of anyone, regardless if she knew them or not, after Germany. She almost died that day. Not only would she have compromised herself, but the entire hospital, and Willa wouldn’t have been able to forgive herself if she did that.</p><p>And now it was only a matter of time before Peter put two and two together that she was the “ice lady”, as everyone called her, that was in Germany, and he’d tell Tony. She’s been his friend for a long time. She knows he’s smart. Then Tony would put her in a report somewhere, and she’d up in foster care, and that would be the end of her life as she knew it.</p><p>
  <em>At least then I would know what happened to all the other mutants—</em>
</p><p>“Willa,” Mia said, causing Willa to let out a squeak and almost drop her ice cream, “why are you still up? It’s 1:30 in the morning.” When Mia noticed the tears rolling down her face, she became alarmed. “Why are you crying?” It had been a long time since she’d seen Willa curled up on the couch with a blanket eating ice cream, and Willa hadn’t even known she’d had tears running down her face.</p><p>“Oh, uh” Willa said, furiously wiping her face, trying to hide the tears, even though her puffy eyes gave it away, “Spider-Man knocked on my window because he got into a bit of a mess, so I helped. Except I’m so used to helping at the hospital, so I made him an ice pack.” She was trying how upset she was, but it wasn’t working in her favor. Not only would she have to move, but so would Mia and Chris, and that hadn’t even crossed Willa’s mind.</p><p>“Oh, Willa,” Mia sat down next to her, giving her the hug she desperately needed, though she didn’t let it last long.</p><p>After a few seconds, Willa brushed Mia off. “You should go back to bed, Mia. It isn’t often Chris sleeps this long.”</p><p>“I can stay up with you, Wil,” Mia said, getting ready to get comfortable underneath the blanket with the girl, but Willa refused again.</p><p>“I’ll be alright, Mia. I might not be right now, but I will be. Go get some well-deserved sleep.”</p><p>Mia looked her over a few times, making sure she wasn’t about to burst into tears, but none the less went back to bed, getting the feeling that if she stayed up with Willa, Willa would become even more upset, and that was something Mia wanted to avoid.</p><p>Peter heard the entire exchange after he had shut the movie off to go to bed. The problem now was that he caught his second wind, which meant he wasn’t going to go to bed anytime soon. He slowly got up and changed into the clothes that Willa had left next to the bed for him, and he noticed that his whole body had already felt loads better, though his ribs still bothered him. As he reached for the doorknob, he weighed his options. He didn’t want to upset Willa, but he also needed answers, and he was feeling more confident about getting them because if she didn’t want anything to do with him, she wouldn’t have helped him in the first place.</p><p>He opened the door and slowly made his way down the hall to see Willa sitting on the couch with her blanket and a tub of ice cream.</p><p>“Hey Willa.”</p><p>Willa didn’t move. She didn’t look up at him. He wasn’t even sure she heard him speak. She just continued to look down into the abyss she considered to be her tub of ice cream. He was about to repeat his statement when she spoke up.</p><p>“Did you text Ned?” she asked before putting another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth.</p><p>“Yeah, I did. He texted back saying that everything at the dance was fine, except that Liz was pretty mad at me for ditching.”</p><p>“Okay.” She sounded so defeated to him. Like she wasn’t really there and was worlds away.</p><p>Peter sat down at the end of the couch, unsure if she’d leave because he sat down, and she did. She set the tub down on the table and headed to the kitchen, only to return a minute later with another spoon, which he gladly accepted. She picked up the tub and sat down right next to Peter, and the both of them wallowed in ice cream before Peter spoke up.</p><p>“How long have you known? I mean, about me being Spider-Man?” he questioned, turning his head to look at her as he took a spoonful of ice cream.</p><p>She let out a shaky breath, not looking him in the eye, “Um, I’ve had a hunch since the middle of April, but I was convinced the beginning of June.”</p><p>It was the end of September, but she’d known way before that. Curiosity got the better of him. “What gave me away?”</p><p>“I heard you tell Serge that he had a cool metal arm, and I’d recognize your voice anywhere.” He watched a ghost of a smile cross her lips, but it was gone as quick as it came, while only confusion crossed his mind. How had she known about something she wasn’t there for? She’d been Mutant Memorial in a coma that day.</p><p>He voiced his confusion. “Serge? You mean the Winter Soldier? How would you know—”</p><p>She cut him off, deciding to make this conversation mirror the feeling of ripping the Band-Aid off. “Because right after that I threw an ice chuck at your head and then proceeded to send you flying out a window.”</p><p>It took Peter a moment, to reorganize his thoughts. None of it made sense, but then, one by one, the boxes were checked. She took a trip, but not where she said she did. She never told him that she could make ice, but he just found out she could. He was dumbfounded.</p><p>“You’re her. The girl made of ice.” It wasn’t a question, at least, not anymore.</p><p>“Yeah.” Willa didn’t dare look up from the floor, too afraid of the look she’d see on Peter’s face.</p><p>“I heard you scream,” he said. She nodded.</p><p>“I watched you hit the ground,” Willa nodded again at his correct statement.</p><p>“Yeah,” she let out a breathy laugh, shaking her head as though she could shake it right out of her brain, “It hurt like a bitch.”</p><p>He honestly couldn’t believe that she had just tried to make a joke about it. “So, the story about being at the hospital for the day and getting hurt? Was that true?”</p><p>She shook her head, finally looking up at Peter, and seeing how upset he was, though she thought it was for other reasons than that she almost died. “Mia couldn’t tell you that I went to Germany with Steve, so she posed as me when you texted and didn’t answer your calls.” Peter was still very confused about that situation so she continued with more detail. “The day that Tony came to get you, Clint was here to get me, and I went so that I could tell Bucky that Mia and Chris were alright. I didn’t know I would get hurt, but I wasn’t about to let anyone else get hurt, either.”</p><p>“You almost died, Willa. No one would’ve known. I would’ve lost my best friend and wouldn’t have known.” She suddenly became very interested in the tub of ice cream sitting on her lap, taking a few more bites before Peter continued, “Mr. Stark has been looking for you. He needs to know that you’re okay—”</p><p>With the mention of even mentioning her to Tony Stark, she dropped her spoon from surprise and her head shot to look at him, the panic evident on her face. “Peter, you can’t tell him.”</p><p>“What?” He was sick of getting confused.</p><p>“You can’t tell Tony. He can’t know where I am.” She’d been doing this for so long, she couldn’t get caught now.</p><p>“Why would that be a bad thing? He wouldn’t come and arrest you. I’d make sure he didn’t. You’re just a kid,” Peter knew that Tony didn’t want to arrest her. He’d ask Peter on multiple occasions if he had any idea about who she was, and he honestly hadn’t expected it to be the girl across the hall.</p><p>Willa shook her head, quite frantically, and the look on her face reminded Peter of the look of terror while in the elevator at the Washington Monument.</p><p>“If you tell him, then I get put in a report. If I get put in a report, people come knocking my door. If they come knocking on my door, they’ll find Mia and Chris and then I’ll get put in foster care and disappear from the face of the Earth.”</p><p>Peter was still processing everything that he had learned tonight, but the only thing that he managed to catch from her rambling was “foster care” and “disappear from the face of the Earth.”</p><p>“Foster care?” He was beginning to get the impression that he didn’t know Willa as well as he thought. “What are you talking about?”</p><p>“My parents are dead, Peter,” Her voice cracked while she spoke, “Since I was 4 years old.”</p><p>He didn’t know what to feel. His brain was still processing all of that information, but he felt hurt. He didn’t know why Willa wouldn’t share that information with him, but he was still confused, and Willa noticed.</p><p>She elaborated, “Mutants have different rules when their parents die. I was supposed to go into foster care as soon as my grandparents left me on the side of the road. If I go into the system, I’ll never been seen alive again. None of the mutants that go in are ever seen again.”</p><p>When Willa had grabbed her things from her room so she could sleep on the couch, she had also grabbed the photo of her and her parents. In fact, it was the only photo she had in her apartment of herself and her parents. She always kept it close because it was one of the three things she had left from her parents. Peter noticed that she didn’t seem to be paying attention to him anymore, so he used that time to take in her appearance. He’d always thought she was pretty, but after everything he learned today, he felt like that didn’t do it justice. He noticed her eyes were puffy from her crying, her hair all over the place, unlike how she styles it to be ‘organized messy’ as she puts it, and through all that, she was probably the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. He was unsure of what to help the girl in front of him who had tears streaming down her face. He glanced down to see what she was looking at when he did a double take.</p><p>How could he not? In a picture sitting on the table was a little Willa with two people he recognized. Of course, he recognized them. He goes to a school who prides itself in creating the next generation of engineers.</p><p>In that photo with Willa, was Ella and Bennett Stryker, and Peter couldn’t help but feel so stupid. It’d been 3 years since she’d moved in, and just now he noticed the resemblance between Willa and who he now knew to be her parents. I mean, she was a perfect mix of the two.</p><p>Her eyes were the same eyes as her mom, a bright blue, but her face was shaped more like her dad’s. Her skin was the perfect between of her parents’. Looking at the picture, he figures she got her dad’s height as her mom didn’t look to be that tall, but what struck him most, looking at the picture, was the smile across Willa’s face.</p><p>She was happy. Truly happy. She had a dimple showing on her left check, and he could count on one hand the number of times he’s seen it. Even in her eyes you could see how happy she was with them. <em>She looks so innocent, like she didn’t have a care in the world, </em>he thought to himself.</p><p>Willa suddenly stood up to go put her ice cream back, startling Peter, and when she came back, she told him to go get some sleep.</p><p>“Willa,” Peter said, desperate to put everything straight, “We need to talk about this. You can’t honestly think that--”</p><p>“We will talk about it. In the morning.” She didn’t want delve into it right then.</p><p>Peter decided that, for once in his life, he was going to win an argument. He wasn’t going to go to bed until he understood why Willa hadn’t told him.</p><p>“Actually,” he started, gearing up for a fight, “technically, it is morning, and as much as you don’t want to talk about it, I’m not going to bed until we do. Either way, I’m not going to sleep until I put it together. It would probably be better for you to just set it straight before I try to piece it together myself.”</p><p>She looked at him, not sure why all of the sudden he cared so much about putting things together, but at the same time was touched that he cared enough to fight to get the answers, so she looked him in the eye and said, “It’s a long story, Pete.”</p><p>“I know the last half, though, when we found out about Mia, so it can’t be that long,” he said, watching her consider what he had to say. He was proud of himself. This was the farthest he’d gotten in winning an argument.</p><p>“Do you want the condensed version or the actual version, all the twists and everything?” she asked, giving in easier than she normally would. Though it may not seem like it, Willa loved the idea of having someone that knew the whole story. She was so sick of only being able to tell half the story to whoever she was talking to.</p><p>“Are you kidding? I want the long version. I’ve got time.”</p><p>She smiled, a tired smile, and he smiled back, wanting to be there for the friend that he hadn’t been very kind to. He knew she always had a lot on her plate, and he wanted to help lift the burden.</p><p>She took a deep breath and began, “On my fourth birthday, my Mom and Dad got this call, and I got left with my grandparents for the night…”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Just Checking In</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Mia got up in the morning, she wasn’t sure what she expected to see, but it certainly wasn’t Willa and Peter curled up together on the couch, even though she thought it was adorable. She knew it had been a long night for the two, and she tried really hard to not wake either of them up. Christina on the other hand, had a completely different idea. She thought it would be super fun to give a squeal when she saw the both of them, which made the two of them jerk awake. Willa was so surprised that she rolled right off the couch, landing with a <em>thud.</em></p><p><em>“</em>Ow.”</p><p>Peter and Mia couldn’t help but laugh at her, and Chris couldn’t stop giggling.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah,” Willa said, rolling her eyes at all of them, “Laugh it up.”</p><p>Mia set Chris down so she could crawl over to Willa and say hi while she took in the situation at hand, she also noticed the two of them emptied the tub of ice cream.</p><p>“Jesus,” Mia stated, pointing at the bin of ice cream, “Did you two finish that last night?”</p><p>Willa just nodded her head, her focus staying on Chris. “Yeah, we had a nice long chat about his behavior, and it was only half full, so calm yourself.”</p><p>Peter scoffed. “That is not what we talked about and you know it.”</p><p>Mia just chuckled at the two bickering, and made her way to the kitchen to get an apple. She noticed the time on the microwave. 8:52 AM. She figured she’d give Willa another scare this morning. Walking back out to the couch, she noticed that Peter had also made his way to the floor to play with Chris, and Mia couldn’t be happier about it. Willa had her family back.</p><p>“Hey Wil, why are you still here?”</p><p>Willa’s head shot up, finally realizing that it was Sunday. “What time is it?”</p><p>“Almost 9.”</p><p>Without another word, Willa stood up and ran to her room to change so that she could head to the gym, while Peter had no idea what was going on and why Willa was running around like a mad woman.</p><p>Before Peter could ask why she was running around, she reappeared from her room in some leggings and a tank top. She ran to the kitchen to get an orange, and yelled, “I should be back by 11. Feel free to eat without me. Also, Mia, could you take the stitches out of Peter’s leg? Thanks, love you. See you later. Bye!” She ran out the door.</p><p>Mia just giggled at Peter’s face, not knowing why Willa just ran out the door, but also panicking because she just told Mia about the stitches in his leg.</p><p>“You should eat this,” handing him an apple that she got from the kitchen, “I saw the wreckage from the plane this morning when I woke up. What you did was amazing, but also quite stupid.”</p><p>“You know,” he said, looking down at Chris who took the apple from him and made it disappear and reappear, “I’m beginning to see a trend. Lots of people tell me that all the time.”</p><p>They both chuckled, and she noticed his wince when Chris dropped her apple on his leg.</p><p>“Is that where Willa put the stitches that she mentioned?” She asked, headed to the bathroom to get the kit so that she could remove them.</p><p>“Yeah,” he said, getting up to sit on the couch so that Mia could have a better look at them when she got back.</p><p>When she got back, she sat on the floor to get a good look at his leg before she started taking his stitches out.  He tried not to flinch, and she was being surprisingly gentle with it, which he appreciated.</p><p>“Where was it that Willa went?” He asked, trying to not sound like he desperately needed to know, but Mia knew why he was asking.</p><p>“She does he physical therapy in the mornings on Sundays so that it gives her back more time to rest before the week starts over. These are her truly lazy days, and she loves them quite a lot.”</p><p>“Oh.” He thought about that for a while. Last night, she told him everything. She explained that even Mia doesn’t know the whole story about Willa, which he thought was probably a good idea. HYDRA thinks that the key to the technology that her parents had invented died with them, not that Willa still had it, and she wanted it to stay that way. They couldn’t come after her if only two people in the world knew about it. They sat in silence for a while, before Peter finally got the nerve to say what he needed to say to Mia.</p><p>“I’m sorry for helping Mr. Stark try to arrest Mr. Barnes. And for not helping Willa when she got hurt.”</p><p>She had just finished with the stitches and was surprised at his outburst but smiled at him none the less.</p><p>“Peter,” she said, “You’re a kid who didn’t know any better. Your idol came to you and asked for your help. Of course, you’re going to help him. I don’t blame you for that. Willa most certainly doesn’t. I don’t think she ever did.”</p><p>“She threw me out a window.”</p><p>“Well, you threw her into a wall, so I’d say you’re even.” Peter laughed.</p><p>“Look,” she continued, “you didn’t know the entirety of the situation. I don’t think Willa did either, but she understood it better than you because she understands what it is like to know you’re going to be stuck somewhere no one will find you if you get caught. She’s never thought you were a bad person.”</p><p>Mia stood up to throw away the supplies that she used and put the rest away in the bathroom. Peter thought about what it must’ve been like for Willa her whole life, not being able to be completely honest with anyone. Knowing that if you get caught, you won’t ever be found and saved from an unknown fate.</p><p>When Mia returned, she sat down on the couch next to Peter, knowing he was still deep in thought. He turned to look at her and asked, “Is that why she never said anything about her parents being dead? She knows May and I wouldn’t have turned her in. I’m pretty sure May would’ve even signed the paperwork to adopt her if it came down to it.”</p><p>Mia was overjoyed that Willa had explained everything to him, and that he was still there. The fact that Willa had taken the time to tell him, and the fact that Peter had pushed the issue, made Mia think that the two would be together for a long time. Maybe even become something more.</p><p>“She knows that Peter, and don’t you ever think otherwise,” Mia sighed, “It is a lot more complicated being a mutant than you think, which is why, at this point, it is easier for Willa to keep to herself. She’d never want to put either of you in that position if the government comes knocking on your door asking about her.”</p><p>Before Peter could tell her that Willa explained it to him last night, he heard a knock on the door. He looked to Mia, wanting to know if she was expecting anyone.</p><p>“It’s probably your aunt, you know, wanting to come scold you about ditching your date but congratulate you for pulling your head out of your ass and making up with Willa.”</p><p>Peter rolled his eyes at the retired Avenger and went to open the door and found his Aunt May standing on the other side.</p><p>He wasn’t quite sure what to say to her, until a hug smile broke out across her face and gave him one of her bear hugs.</p><p>“I’m so happy that you two made up.”</p><p>Peter hugged his aunt back, and Mia invited her in for breakfast. So there the three of them sat, eating their breakfast, watching Chris play with the apple that Peter hadn’t tried to take back from her, until they heard the lock click on the door. The three of them looked to see Willa walk in, and she didn’t notice them sitting there until Mia spoke up.</p><p>“There are some waffles in the microwave if you want them.”</p><p>It was then that Willa finally noticed that both the Parkers were sitting there, looking quite like they felt right at home.</p><p>“Alright,” Willa started, smiling at her family, “I’m just gonna go take a shower quick.”</p><p>Mia nodded, and the three watched Willa walk down the hall, mumbling something they didn’t quite understand.</p><p>“So, Pete,” Aunt May asked, “How was the dance? Did you have a good time?”</p><p>Peter panicked for a second, not sure if May knew about him ditching Liz or not, and couldn’t tell if she knew or not. He saw the look on Mia’s face though, and knew that she would back up whatever he decided to tell May.</p><p>“It was fine, May. It just wasn’t as fun as I thought it was going to be, so I texted Willa to see if she was still awake and we ended up watching movies all night,” he said, hoping Aunt May would buy his story.</p><p>Mia was impressed that he came up with that as fast as he did, though it wasn’t too far from the truth. She heard Willa watching<em> the Aristocats </em>the first time but then heard it start again. She’d wondered why she decided to watch it again but had put together that she had probably started it over to distract Peter while she was fixing him up.</p><p>Before May could question him about the dance that he would have no idea about, Willa came walking back from the hall, now in some sweatpants paired with a tank top. She smiled at all of them, quite happy that they were all there, until they heard a phone ringing. Mia’s eyes shot over to meet Willa’s when she heard the tone, knowing exactly where it was coming from.</p><p>Mia shook her head, silently cursing her brother’s timing, “Of course he would call in the middle of family bonding.”</p><p>May and Peter looked quite confused at that statement, and even more confused when Willa started laughing.</p><p>“You do know,” Willa said, taking a pause as she fished the phone out of the drawer to answer, “He doesn’t know that you’re here, right? He thinks I’m here, by myself, all the time.”</p><p>May was still looking lost at the conversation, but Peter had put two and two together. It was short list of people that knew that Willa lived by herself in the first place, and if Mia was cursing at whoever it was, he’d bet that Steve Rogers was on the other end of that phone call.</p><p>The phone still rang as she pulled it out, and, with a smirk plastered on her face, turned to Mia and asked if she, personally, would like to tell Steve that his is ruining family bonding time.</p><p>“Hell no,” Mia huffed, “I just think it’s dumb that he’s calling after almost 4 months to check and see if you’re alright.”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” May interrupted, needing clarification on what was going on, “Who exactly is calling right now and why is that important?”</p><p>Mia knew she messed up when she said that, and Willa decided that she would answer the phone call and leave Mia to explain to May what she meant.</p><p>“That’s all you, Mia,” she said, before walking to her room.</p><p>She answered the call and held the phone up to her ear. “Hello?”</p><p>The line was silent for a few seconds, and Willa wasn’t sure if she’d answered the phone on time until she heard, “<em>Willa.”</em></p><p><em>“</em>Hi Steve. How are you?” She asked, sitting down on her bed, glad that she knew he was at least alive. Even if he didn’t do the most sensible thing, she still cared that he was okay.</p><p>“<em>I’ve been better. Running around in Europe right now. That’s always a blast.” </em>A pause.<em> “I didn’t think that you would pick up.”</em></p><p><em>“</em>Why?” Now she was confused, until she remembered that Steve had broken some of his friends out of the Raft, which included Wanda and Sam. She heard some shuffling on the other side of the phone and decided that everyone decided that they should make that call. It sounded like the phone had been set down on something and then she heard another male voice speak up.</p><p>“<em>You took one of the worst hits I’ve ever seen, and then vanished into thin air. Excuse me for being worried about you, kid.”</em></p><p><em>“</em>I can assure you, Sam, I had everything under control,” she said, smiling and shaking her head at his antics, “I am currently sitting in my room actually. I was just in the hospital for a few months. No big deal.”</p><p>“<em>No big deal?” </em>she heard Wanda say, “<em>You are quite dumb, doing what you did. You almost died. How stupid could you be, pushing Rhodey out of the way like that?”</em></p><p><em>“</em>Well,” Willa began, “We mutants are built for that. My ice is pretty thick, in fact it is the reason I’m up and walking around, and if it had hit Rhodey, Rhodey would’ve been fine, but the suit would’ve lost power, which wouldn’t have been good when Rhodey hit the ground. All I’m saying is that I had a higher chance of survival than he did taking that hit, and if I had to do it all over again, I’d make the same choice.”</p><p>The other side of the line was silent for a few more seconds until she heard someone, who she assumed to be Sam, huff and say, <em>“Jesus, Steve, I think this kid’s got more moral fiber than you do.”</em></p><p>She chuckled at that revelation, until she heard Steve clear his throat. She realized that her wellbeing must not be the only reason he called.</p><p><em>“Willa,”</em> he started, <em>“We’re looking for Mia. Has she called you recently?”</em></p><p>Willa figured that they would go looking for her, but she also knew that if she said that Mia wasn’t there, they wouldn’t come looking by her. They didn’t think that she would come to Queens. Willa knew what she was doing spoke against the moral fiber that Sam had just mentioned. Mia had peaked her head into the room, to see Willa still on the phone. When Willa gestured that Steve was looking for her, she waited for Mia to decided what she wanted to tell Steve.</p><p>Mia almost shook her head yes, but Mia couldn’t just go back to her life of being a spy and Avenger. She liked the life she had now. She enjoyed the people that she spent her time with, and she enjoyed the time she spent taking care of her daughter. She enjoyed the movie nights with Willa and getting up with Chris in the middle of the night. All of this gave her a chance at normal, and she wasn’t going to give it up that easy.</p><p>She shook her head at Willa and brought the phone back up to her ear and told Steve that she hadn’t heard from Mia in a while.</p><p>Sam didn’t seem to be buying it after the long pause that Willa took. “<em>You sure about that, kid? ‘Cause that answer didn’t seem too sure</em>.”</p><p>“I’m sure, Sam,” she answered, deciding to lace the lie with truth, “I’ve just got some friends over for lunch and they asked where the peanut butter was. I haven’t heard from Mia since right after the mishap in Sokovia. I thought that maybe Steve had finally rubbed off on her.”</p><p>Both Mia and Steve chuckled at her statement, as they both knew Steve never called unless he was a) reminded to, or b) he needed something.</p><p>“<em>We haven’t seen her since she went looking for Bucky, and I haven’t heard from her since Sokovia. Bucky doesn’t know where she is either, and we’ve looked everywhere we could think of,” </em>Steve said, sounding worried about his sister.</p><p>“I’m sure she’s fine. She’s smart. Maybe she decided she wanted to be normal for a while. Natasha probably taught her a lot of tricks,” Willa said, still trying to sell the lie.</p><p>The way that the other side of the line was silent, she wasn’t too sure if they had taken the bait, until Steve sighed. Wanda had never met the woman, but she knew how much she meant to both Steve and Sam.</p><p>“<em>Would you let us know if you hear from her</em>?” Wanda asked, looking at both men who seemed lost in thought.</p><p>“I can do that, though I’m sure if she needed something, she’d find you first,” Willa added, smiling in victory that her story had worked.</p><p>“<em>Thanks, kid. We’ve got to go, and I’ll do my best to keep in touch</em>,” Steve added.</p><p>“I’ll be fine, Steve. You worry about staying safe. You don’t often do that when you end up in a situation.”</p><p>All three of the adults on the other end of the line chuckled at her statement, because they all knew it was true.</p><p>“<em>Stay safe, kid</em>,” Sam said, and she could tell that he still felt guilty for not being able to help her after all she did.</p><p>“I will. I’m just a normal kid who wants to get good grades on her chemistry test, remember?”</p><p>They all laughed and the line clicked, signaling the end of the call. Willa set the phone down on her lap, happy that she knew they were okay, and she looked up to see Mia still standing there.</p><p>Mia felt conflicted, knowing that she was lying to part of her family to keep the other part safe. She missed them. She missed being able to have girl talk with Natasha and spar with Steve to show him he shouldn’t think a fight is easy just because he is bigger than his opponent. She missed staying up late with Tony when he tried to explain all of his inventions to him.</p><p>Willa just stood up and gave Mia a hug, and gladly accepted it.</p><p>“They’re alright, Mia. Don’t you worry.”</p><p>Willa heard will sniff a few times, and knew that being away from them had really taken its toll. Before Willa could comment on that, Mia grabbed her shoulders, getting serious.</p><p>“I have unleashed a beast out there, Willa,” Mia said, even though she still had a small smile on her face, “So if you want to run, now would be your chance.”</p><p>Willa and Mia just busted out laughing, thinking that May couldn’t be that scary. They were both very wrong.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. You're Good?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey all! I know it's been awhile. It's almost finals week, so it's been a little crazy, but I finally finished the chapter. Enjoy!!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Willa had never seen May so mad in the time that she had been living across the hall. Peter hadn’t seen her that mad in his entire life. Not when he snuck out in Washington D.C. Not when he disappeared from detention. Not when May found out how he treated Willa when she got back.</p><p>Willa stood there like a champ and took all the screaming, and Peter couldn’t believe it.</p><p>“WILLA MAE,” May screamed, “WHY ON EARTH DID YOU THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO GO TO GERMANY? YOU ALMOST DIED, AND I THOUGHT IT WAS FROM AN ACCIDENT AT THE HOSPITAL! YOU SHOULD’VE TOLD ME THE MINUTE YOU DECIDED TO GO!”</p><p>Willa knew that she found out eventually, but she didn’t think May would screech this loud.</p><p>“May,” she spoke softly, trying to get May to calm down a little, “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry. If you were worried, that would make me worried, and I wouldn’t have been able to focus on what I was doing there. I went because I needed to make sure that Bucky knew that Mia was fine and safe, and that he had every reason to fight to make it back. I wasn’t supposed to get hurt, and Chelsea was going to come pick me up, regardless.”</p><p>Mia, raising her eyebrows, questioned, “She was?”</p><p>Willa, smiling sheepishly, replied, “Yeah, I mean, she didn’t know that, but that was my initial plan. Help everybody out, nobody getting hurt, hitting the button on my bracelet and then being brought home. Simple.”</p><p>Peter did his best not to laugh because he knew that Willa could throw him under the bus to get back at him, and he didn’t need May calling Tony Stark and screaming at him over the phone.</p><p>May had started to calm down, and everyone watched as she started putting all of this information together, plus, everyone knew that May couldn’t stay mad at Willa for very long, especially now since she knew more of Willa’s story.</p><p>“That sounds like a good plan,” May started, sitting back down at the table, watching Chris sitting on the floor, still playing with the apple that Peter had given her earlier, “Except you still managed to land yourself in the hospital for the summer. How on Earth did you manage that?”</p><p>Behind May, Peter paled at the thought. He remembered that day like it was yesterday, and now that he knew his best friend was the one that got hurt, he would never forget it. He wouldn’t ever admit it out loud to anyone, but that scream still had him waking up in a cold sweat at least twice a week.</p><p>“Yes, well,” Willa said, trying to figure out how to phrase it, “It seemed that I had underestimated slightly how far some people were going to go and how careless others would be. I took a laser to the back that was sent by someone who wasn’t really paying attention, and had I not pushed Colonel Rhodes out of the way, he would’ve been dead when he hit the ground, and I knew that Chelsea would get me to the Cryo Chamber at the hospital as soon as I hit the button, as it was deemed for emergencies only.”</p><p>“Well,” May pursed her lips, “I’m mad that you didn’t tell me and that you made up the story that you did, but I’m glad you’re okay, but don’t ever, and I mean EVER, do that again. You’re family.”</p><p>She wrapped her arms around Willa in a crushing embrace, and Willa appreciated it. She’d always thought that May and Peter were family to her, but hearing May say it out loud made her give a crushing hug back.</p><p>Hearing how May handled that topic, Peter thought that he might be able to survive May finding out that he’s Spider-Man, but seeing how happy Willa looked as his aunt gave her a hug, he knew that that would have to be another day.</p><p>Peter grinned, “Yeah, I mean, it’s awful that you got hurt and all, Wil, but you’re a super hero now. People have finally given you a name. Blizzard.”</p><p>May shot him a glare, and he immediately quieted, not wanting to be on the end of her next rampage.</p><p>“Okay, now that that is over,” May said, releasing Willa from the hug and wiping the few tears that had fallen down her face, ignoring Peter’s remarks for the moment, “Who was on the phone? Mia skirted around that part.”</p><p>Willa gave Mia a pointed look, and Mia just smiled and shrugged, leaving this next part up to Willa.</p><p>Willa just shook her head and went to get the plate of waffles out of the microwave before sitting down at the table to explain.</p><p>“That was Steve.”</p><p>“Steve?” May asked, “Like as in ‘Captain America, Mia’s Brother’ Steve?”</p><p>“One in the same, May. Well, him and Sam and Wanda, but he’s the one who had the number, so yeah.”</p><p>Peter was really enjoying the facial expressions that had crossed his aunt’s face in the last 20 minutes. She went from a crazy angry, to sad, to confused, to frustrated, to thoughtful, and right now it was sitting somewhere between awe and ready to punch someone in the face.</p><p>“So, let me get this straight,” May said, making sure she had everything in order, “Steve invited you to go help in Germany, which you did, and then you got super hurt and landed in the hospital, but he didn’t know that because he got away before that happened, as explained by Mia,” Mia nodded to confirm that much, and May continued, “And then Chelsea came to get you, which is how you got back to the hospital and then stayed there for two months, and then came home. It is now the end of September and you’re telling me that he is just now calling to check up on you even though he broke his friends out of prison ages ago?”</p><p>Willa shrugged, wanting to show passivity, “I guess. Steve has never really been that good at checking up on me anyways, so it didn’t really surprise me, and I wasn’t sure who he stayed with after he broke them out anyhow. Even while Mia was running around Europe, she still checked up on me more than Steve did, who was staying at the Tower. That’s why Mia decided to hide here, because she knew that Steve wouldn’t just show up or call regularly, because he hasn’t since I moved.”</p><p>“You knew the two of them before you moved here?”</p><p>Willa nodded, “They lived across the hall from me in Washington D.C. When everything happened with HYDRA and the Triskelion, who I was staying with at the time decided that it would be best that I moved up here along with them to keep the suspicion low about the mutants in the area.”</p><p>May decided that that was enough new information for the day and just nodded, thinking that they’ll return to that a different day. The rest of the day was spent playing board games, watching movies, and watching Chris disappear and reappear different objects throughout the apartment.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>When the two teens arrived at school on Monday, they expected everyone to be talking about Spider-Man and what happened, but that wasn’t the case, and the two teens, plus Ned when he arrived at their side, felt awful about it.</p><p> The night of the dance, Peter had figured out that Adrian Toomes, Liz’s father, was the Vulture, the flying man that had been running an illegal alien weapon ring for years after what happened in 2012, and even worse? Adrian Toomes knew exactly who Peter was. As far as Peter could tell, Mr. Toomes hadn’t told anyone, and he was grateful for it, though he racked his brain as to why that would be.</p><p>Because of the trial and charges against Mr. Toomes, Liz’s mother decided that it would be best if her and Liz moved so that the trial wouldn’t follow them around and they would have a fresh start. Willa knew exactly what that was like, wanting to hide from something that followed you around, and she wouldn’t ever blame Liz or her mother for their choices. Willa wanted to say goodbye to Liz but felt as though it would be too impersonal of her, as the two never got along in the first place.</p><p>She did, however, convince Peter that he needed to apologize to Liz for skipping out on her during the dance and for everything that he had done. Peter didn’t want to, but then Ned also told him that he should, and that seemed to be enough of a push for him to go and talk to her before she left.</p><p>While Peter was talking to Liz, Mr. Harrington found her in the hall waiting for Peter to finish up his conversation so that they could head to class.</p><p>“Ms. Miller,” he asked, “could I have a few minutes of your time?”</p><p>“Sure, Mr. Harrington.” They both walked down the hall towards his classroom, exchanging small talk before he went to sit down at his desk, motioning for Willa to find a seat at the nearest table.</p><p>“I’m really excited for Academic Decathlon to start back up, Mr. Harrington,” she said, taking a seat, “I loved the break, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve had a lot of extra free time and I’m not sure what to do with myself.”</p><p>He laughed, knowing that Willa enjoyed being busy, and he hoped that his suggestion would help.</p><p>“Well,” he said, “I hope that I can help with that. I know that Liz is leaving, and it may seem insensitive to replace her this fast, but the team needs a captain, and I think that it should be you.”</p><p>Willa blinked, not comprehending what he had just said. “I’m sorry?”</p><p>He shook his head, chuckling at her reaction, “I want to make you Captain of the Academic Decathlon team.”</p><p>Willa felt surprised and honored at the fact that he thought that he wanted her to be the Captain, but she didn’t want the position, and he was confused as to why, because he knew that she would put the effort into what needed to be done.</p><p>“Willa, why don’t you want it? You are amazing at keeping your head level, and you’re ridiculously smart. You’re everything in a Team Captain that we need, and I know that you would put the work in for the job.”</p><p>“I’m not saying that I wouldn’t Mr. Harrington,” she started, having another reason that she didn’t want it, “But I think being able to keep a level head isn’t the only thing that is needed in a Team Captain. That person should be able to keep a level head but should also challenge the ideas of the other team members and push them to better themselves, and I think Michelle would be a better choice because of it.”</p><p>She knew that she’d surprised Mr. Harrington with her statement but stood by it. As much as she would love to run the team, she knew that eventually something would come up and the team would have to go on the back burner, and she didn’t want the team to suffer because their Captain had too much to worry about.</p><p>“Plus, she won us the Championship. She deserves to be Team Captain, Mr. Harrington. She’d do amazing,” Willa added, hoping that she’d convinced him to give it to her.</p><p>Mr. Harrington nodded slowly, thinking that choice over, and realized that everything Willa had said about Michelle was true, and that she would be amazing.</p><p>“Alright,” he answered, standing up from his desk, “I’ll ask her if she’s up to it later. I think that you’re right. She’ll be a great team leader. You should get to class now. I’m pretty sure Parker is waiting in the hall for you.”</p><p>Willa smiled and stood to leave, giving Mr. Harrington one more wave before walking into the hall only to find Peter leaning on the wall, playing on his phone.</p><p>“Hey,” she asked, and then giggled as she watched him jump, almost dropping his phone, “You, know, for someone with super heightened senses, you are very jumpy.”</p><p>He gave her a shove as they started down the hall, before he spoke.</p><p>“I talked to Liz.”</p><p>She glanced at him, trying to gauge how it went, but all the sudden he seemed to be hiding his emotions very well.</p><p>“How did it go?” She asked.</p><p>“I don’t know,” Peter answered, trying to figure out how he felt about what she had told him, specifically what she had said about his relationship with Willa, “She wasn’t angry with me about me ditching her, which I guess for the circumstances was probably normal. All she really said was that she hoped that I figured out whatever was going on with me.”</p><p>He didn’t really feel like mentioning the part when she said that him and Willa would be really good together, thinking that that is why he left her at the dance, and Willa took his answer without question, deciding that it would be more fun to talk about Decathlon practice after school, and for a moment, Peter just stared at her face, loving how happy she looked when she talked about doing something that she enjoyed. He looked away before she caught him staring and for the rest of the day he wondered when he started thinking that she was beautiful instead of just pretty or cute.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>After school, everyone on the Academic Decathlon team was supposed to meet in the library for their first practice. Of course, now that Peter and Willa made up, there were practically inseparable, so they arrived together, and first because Willa was with Peter. Willa decided to sit across from Peter because she wanted to save a seat for Michelle when she arrived.</p><p>Everyone began to filter in, Ned first, then Michelle, who was grateful for the seat next to Willa, and Flash and Charles, and Cindy. It was a bit of a downer, everyone knowing that Liz wasn’t coming, but when Mr. Harrington arrived, they saw that he had brought the trophy that they had won with, and that seemed to boost the morale of the group.</p><p>“Congratulations, Decathlon National Champions!” He shouted, and everyone started clapping, with the occasional “Yeah!” or “Woohoo!” thrown in there. Willa decided she didn’t need any of that. While she was happy that they had won, she knew that she would never look at that victory the same ever again, and looking at the look on Peter’s face, she knew that they were both on the same page.</p><p>Mr. Harrington motioned for everyone to quiet down and began explaining why he brought the trophy.</p><p>“I’m gonna have to put this back in the trophy case soon,” he began, “But just for motivation right now at this practice. I know that I am a little ahead of the game, but we will need a new team captain next year.”</p><p>Everyone started looking around, trying to figure out who the next team captain could be, and Peter and Willa shared a look. Even though Peter and Willa hadn’t directly talked about it, she knew that Peter heard most of the conversation in the hall while he was waiting for Willa to walk to class, and he wasn’t surprised that Willa had given it up. She dealt with a lot, and while he knew she could handle, she didn’t need another thing on her plate.</p><p>Mr. Harrington continued after regaining everyone’s attention, “So I’m appointing Michelle.”</p><p>Everyone was ecstatic for her. Willa grabbed Michelle’s hand, squeezed and whispered, “I’m proud of you, MJ. You deserve it.”</p><p>Everyone else voiced their “Congratulations” and Michelle couldn’t stop smiling, though Willa could tell that she was a little uncomfortable with all the attention.</p><p>“Uh,” she said, “Thank you. My friends call me MJ.”</p><p>Ned tilted his head, sort of puzzled, “I thought you didn’t have any friends.”</p><p>Michelle looked at him, resuming her normal demeanor and told him, “I didn’t.”</p><p>Willa was beyond proud of her friend and was very happy to see her grow and make more friends. As Willa helped pass the binders of information around, she noticed Peter staring down at his phone, before looking up and catching her eye, and Willa realized that it was a Spider-Man thing.</p><p>Peter gathered his things and stood up. “I, uh, I gotta go.”</p><p>Without missing a beat, Michelle asked, “Hey, where you going?” and Peter stopped dead in his tracks. When he stopped, Michelle pushed another step further, “What are you hiding, Peter?”</p><p>Peter was floundering like a fish and glanced at Willa for some help, but before Willa could step in with some sort of excuse, Michelle just grinned.</p><p>“I’m just kidding,” she shook her head, hiding her laughter, “I don’t care. Bye.”</p><p>Peter just shook his head, heading out of the library. He heard Michelle talking behind him, “All right, we should run some drills.”</p><p>He heard a chorus of agreements before he walked out the door. He’d received a text from an Unknown Number telling him to go to the bathroom, and he figured that it had something to do with crashing the plane a few nights ago. Before he got to the bathroom, his phone buzzed again, so he pulled it out of his pocket.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>New Message</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>From: The Blizzard</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>To: The Spider</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>We still on for Ice Cream later???</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>He smiled at the message, happy that his friend was back in his life and sent a quick “yes” before walking into the bathroom, where he found Happy Hogan standing.</p><p>•   •   •   •   •   •</p><p>As it turns out, Peter had done something that had impressed Tony Stark so much, he’d invited him to the new Facility upstate. Happy had taken him from school to get him there, and Peter wasn’t sure if they told Aunt May they were picking him up or what they told her. He’d sent a text to Willa so that she knew where he was in case he was a tad late, and he also knew that Willa wouldn’t tell a soul where he went and the true reason why.</p><p>Peter and Happy had made it inside the building and through the window, Peter could see a Quinjet taking off, and he couldn’t help but be amazed.</p><p>“You don’t see that every day,” Happy said, seeing the grin spread across Peter’s face. Peter heard some footsteps behind him, so he turned and saw Tony Stark headed their way.</p><p>“Oh, there they are. How was the ride up?” Tony asked.</p><p>“Okay,” Happy replied.</p><p>Tony looks over to Peter and motions for him to start walking with him.</p><p>“Give me a minute with the kid.”</p><p>Happy looks over incredulously. “Seriously?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Tony replies nonchalantly, “I gotta talk to the kid.”</p><p>“I’ll be close behind,” Happy said, pointing at him.</p><p>Tony shook his head at Happy, “How about a loose follow? All right? Boundaries are good.”</p><p>Throughout that exchange, Peter had been looking around at everything, when he noticed a picture of the Blackbird from the 1940’s, and Peter couldn’t help but feel guilty about not saying anything to Tony about it. He wanted to tell Tony that she was alright, but he knew that if he said anything about Mia that he would come looking, and that would cost him Willa, and he promised Willa the night that he found out about her life that he wouldn’t ever breath a word about it to another soul.</p><p>“Mr. Stark,” Peter asked hesitantly, “Could I ask you a question?”</p><p>“Sure, kid.”</p><p>“What happened to the Blackbird?”</p><p>That stopped Tony dead in his tracks. He wouldn’t ever admit it to anyone, except maybe Pepper, but when Amelia Rogers went missing, it hurt him more than he thought it would. Unlike her brother, Mia was always trying to learn new things and how they worked. She adjusted better than Steve in the first place, learning a whole lot of new things before Steve could truly process what had happened. Of course, Mia had her bad days, and on the days that it seemed both Mia and Tony would be holed up in the lab where Tony would be working on an experiment and Mia would be watching, trying to figure out what was going on. After everything that happened, Tony would classify Mia as a sister before a friend.</p><p>When she didn’t show up at the tower with Steve after the Triskelion fell, he was a little worried, but Steve told him that she had something that she needed to do before she came back, and Tony respected that. As time went on, Tony slowly stopped believing Steve when he told her that she had a lead on whatever she was following and that she thought she would be back soon. He'd confronted him a few times, but Steve never gave him a solid answer. Soon, Steve admitted that he hadn’t heard from Mia in a while, but by then Mia had been long gone, at least to their knowledge.</p><p>“Jees, kid,” Tony said, rubbing the back of his neck, “I don’t know. Nobody does, at least to my knowledge. I think Cap might’ve, but we haven’t been on good terms, so I doubt he’d tell me even if he did. Why are you asking?”</p><p>“I, uh,” Peter scrambled for a reason, when he remembered that him and Willa used to debate about what happened, “I always wondered about it, and my friend and I always debate about what could’ve happened, and then I saw the picture so I thought I’d ask.”</p><p>“Look,” Tony said, putting his arm around Peter’s shoulder, “It’s fine that you asked. People are curious. I get it. Anyways, sorry I took your suit. I mean, you had it coming. Actually, it was the perfect tough love moment that you needed. To urge you on, right? Wouldn’t you think? Don’t you think?”</p><p>Peter glanced up at him, shrugging his shoulders, “I guess.”</p><p>Tony continued forward, pushing Peter forward with him. “Let’s just say it was.”</p><p>Peter let out a breath, trying to stay calm. He knew what he did was wrong, and he needed to make it up to Tony.</p><p>“Mr. Stark, I really—”</p><p>“You screwed to pooch hard,” Tony was not pulling punches, not that he ever did, “bigtime. But then you did the right thing. Took the dog to the free clinic, you raised the hybrid puppies… All right, not my best analogy. I was wrong about you. I think, with a little more mentoring, you could be a real asset to the team.”</p><p>Tony stopped at the end of the hall, causing Peter to stop with him, which gave Peter a moment to registered what he had just been told.</p><p>“To the—To the team?” Peter asked.</p><p>Tony shrugged, “Yeah. Anyway, there’s about 50 reporters behind that door,” pointing off to the left, “Real ones, not bloggers. When you’re ready, why don’t you try that on?”</p><p>Tony tapped his watch, and Peter watched in amazement as the wall in front of him opened to reveal a new suit, much like the design of Iron Man suit, called the Iron Spider. Peter wasn’t sure why he was amazed at what Tony Stark could do, as he proved time and time again to never be underestimated, but it was still one of the coolest things he has ever seen.</p><p>Tony continued after he let Peter take in what was in front of him before continuing, “And I’ll introduce the world to the newest official member of the Avengers: Spider-Man.”</p><p>Peter took a few more steps towards the suit, not quite believing it that it was his if he wanted it. “I—” he chuckled, trying to figure out what to say.</p><p>“Yeah,” Tony said, “Give that a look.”</p><p>Peter looked at the suit, really thinking that it would be awesome to have.</p><p>“After the press conference, Happy will show you to your room, your new quarters,” turning to Happy, Tony asked, “Where’s he between? He’s next to Vision?”</p><p>Happy took a few steps forward, entering the conversation, saying, “Yeah, Vision’s not big on doors.”</p><p>Tony turned back to Peter, who was still staring at the suit, “It’s fun. Or walls. You’ll fit right in.”</p><p>Peter was at a loss for words. What Tony was offering him was his dream. He’s grown up always wanting to be an Avenger, to help the little guy, but looking at what he already had in his life, he wasn’t ready to give it up. He wanted to finish school and be able to meet Willa for ice cream and build Legos with Ned. He wanted to go get Takeout with May when she burned what they were originally going to have.</p><p>Even then, Peter knew that he bit off more than he could chew, taking on the Vulture, and now that he knew about Willa and she knew about him, he wasn’t going to let this get in the way of his relationships. Not again. Peter had made up his mind.</p><p>Turning to face Tony, he took a deep breath before giving his answer, “Thank you, Mr. Stark. But I’m good.”</p><p>Tony was confused. “You’re good? Good? How are you good?”</p><p>“Well,” Peter said, “I mean, I’d rather just stay on the ground for a little while. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Somebody’s got to look out for the little guy, right?”</p><p>Tony took off his glasses, as though his hearing was affected by what he was seeing through his glasses. He asked, for clarification, “You’re turning me down? You better think about this. Look at this,” he pointed to the suit, “Look at me. Last chance. Yes or no?”</p><p>Without hesitation, Peter answered, “No.”</p><p>“Okay,” Tony replied, “It’s kind of a Springsteen-y, working class hero vibe that I dig. Uh, Happy will take you home.”</p><p>“Actually, could he drop me off at the ice cream place down the street?” If they left right then, Peter would still be on time for ice cream.</p><p>“What?” Tony said, before moving on, his brain needing to focus on other things, “Yeah. Fine.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Happy said, taking a step towards Tony, before turning back to Peter, “Mind waiting in the car? I need a minute.”</p><p>Peter nodded before giving his thanks one last time to Tony.</p><p>“Yes, Mr. Parker. Very well.” Tony put his hand out to shake, and Peter accepted, glad that Tony wasn’t out to get him.</p><p>“See you around,” Peter said, turning to walk out.</p><p>“Okay,” Tony said, still not quite believing that Peter had turned down the option to become part of the Avengers.</p><p>Peter made it almost a quarter of the way down the hall before he turned, watching the new suit get put back in its hiding spot.</p><p>“This was a test, right?” Peter asked, to no one in particular, “There’s, uh, nobody back there?”</p><p>Tony nodded, not wanting to give away that he actually invited a large number of reporters to announce Spider-Man joining the team, “Yes, you passed. Alright, skedaddle there, young buck.”</p><p>Peter smiled, “Thank you, Mr. Stark. Thank you.”</p><p>Tony grimaced, “Yeah, thank you.”</p><p>Peter made his way back down the hall, taking one last glance at the picture of the Blackbird on the wall.</p><p>When he asked Tony about her earlier, Peter could tell that he hadn’t given up on her coming home, which he definitely going to tell Mia. He knew how much she missed all of them, and maybe this would give her a push to at least let them all know that she’s okay. He shook his head once, before making his way out of the building. He had a lot to tell Willa when he got back.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Family Comes First</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A short and sweet end to this part of the story.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Firstly, I want to apologize that it has been over a month since I've posted to this story. A lot has happened and I just wasn't ready to post. This is the last chapter for this segment of the story and I cannot be more thankful for all of you. I'll have a longer A/N at the end. Enjoy the chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You’re kidding? For real. He asked you to be an Avenger and you said no?”</p><p>As soon as Happy dropped Peter off at the Ice Cream Parlor, he didn’t waste any time in telling Willa what just happened, like he didn’t believe any of it either.</p><p>“Yeah,” he replied, “I turned him down.”</p><p>“Why on Earth would you do that? It’s been your dream to be an Avenger since before I’ve known you,” She asked, shoving a spoonful of her ice cream into her mouth.</p><p>“What happened with Liz’s dad was scary, Willa. I brought down a <strong><em>plane</em></strong><em>. </em>That wasn’t even considered an Avengers level threat, so why on Earth could I handle more than that. Plus, I’d have to move to the new facility upstate, and I’d have to quit school, and decathlon, and I’d have to tell Aunt May, and--”</p><p>“Pete,” Willa said, setting her hand on his arm, “I get it. Queens is home. You don’t want to leave.”</p><p>“No, that’s, kind of, but,” Peter put his hand on his face, anxious about what he was trying to get across, “I meant what I said about making it up to you. Mia told me about what you told her about feeling like I put you last, and I won’t deny that being Spider-Man took up a lot of my time, but I didn’t ever want you feel like you weren’t my best friend. Moving upstate would mean that I’m doing exactly that, and I can’t do that. Family comes first. You and May and Mia and Chris come first. I won’t forget it a second time.”</p><p>Willa stared at him for a moment, before a huge smile broke out across her face, dimple and all. She gave him a big hug, which she hoped conveyed to him that she beyond happy about being able to keep her best friend in her life, and that he wanted her in his life too.</p><p>She pulled away, even though she quite like hugging Peter, and couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. “You know, even if you did decide to go, I would probably hack the building to get in to hang out anyways.”</p><p>“No way, Mr. Stark has amazing security. He’s even got his own Artificial Intelligence. F.R.I.D.A.Y. Super awesome. I’ve got one in the suit too. I named her--”</p><p>“Karen?” Willa said, having seen the name in Tony’s files.</p><p>“How’d you know that?”</p><p>“Hypothetically?”</p><p>“Sure.”</p><p>Willa leaned over, before whispering in his ear, “I’ve already hacked his program. Way before Germany to keep them off of Mia’s trail. My A.I. has been in there for months.”</p><p>Peter was dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that his best friend hacked Tony Stark and the Avengers and hadn’t been caught.</p><p>“Okay, I feel that there is still a lot I don’t know about you, and I’m fascinated by it, like for real.”</p><p>She laughed, grabbing her bag and getting up, throwing her cup in the trash before waiting for Peter to do the same.</p><p>“Shuri helped me program her. I named her E.L.L.A., after my mom,” She said, walking out the door as Peter held it open for her.</p><p>From there, the conversation ensued about how Willa had met the people she had, and created the things that she had, and Peter couldn’t help it. He had a major crush on his best friend, and he knew it wasn’t going away anytime soon. He loved watching her get so excited about the things that she had learned and the people she had met who were from all over the world. She even told him that Shuri invited her and Mia and Chris to visit Wakanda over the coming summer.</p><p>“That is just nuts, Wil. I’ll never stop telling you, but you’re truly amazing.” Peter couldn’t stop himself before the compliment came out as he was unlocking his door. He glanced up, realizing what he just said, and was about to try and back track before he noticed the blush on her face, and decided that she was too cute when she blushed so he’d have to make her do it more often.</p><p>She noticed his staring and asked him if he was going to open the door or not.</p><p>“Oh, uh, yeah, sorry.” He turned the doorknob and walked in, Willa following close behind.</p><p>“Aunt May,” Peter shouted, “did you do dinner yet?”</p><p>Silence.</p><p>“May?” Willa called out.</p><p>Still Silence.</p><p>“Guess they aren’t back yet,” Peter noted.</p><p>“We can work on the Chemistry then, since you’re so far behind,” Willa stated, poking his chest.</p><p>He rolled his eyes, walking into his room to set his bag down at his desk when Willa asked him something.</p><p>“What did you say, Wil?” he asked, turning to look at her.</p><p>He saw her looking at a brown paper bag, sitting on his bed. He walked over to look at it and noticed that there was a note attached to it.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>This Belongs to You. - T.S.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p><em>No way, </em>he thought.</p><p>“Looks like Spider-Man is back in business,” Willa said, taking a seat on his bed, pulling out her homework, “I won’t stop you from going, but I will hold you to the Chemistry homework when you get back.”</p><p>He looked at her, noticing there was no hint of anger that he got the suit back or that he wanted to go out and be Spider-Man.</p><p>“Are you sure? I don’t have to go.”</p><p>“Peter Benjamin, I’m not mad that you want to go. You’ve always wanted to help people, and this is the way that you do it. No go before I decide that you need to do your chemistry first before you go.”</p><p>Peter smiled and ran to change before coming back to his room and getting ready to climb out the window before he heard Aunt May.</p><p>“What the fu--?”</p><p>
  <strong>Spider-Man and the Blizzard will return</strong>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you all so much for sticking with this story. It means a lot to me that people are reading this, as this is my very first story and I love it dearly. I plan to write at least one more part to this story, continuing this Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and I'm not sure if I'll put it all in one  or split it into two yet, but really, thank you all who have read this.</p><p>As always, feel free to drop questions, concerns, or comments below. Thanks again!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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